FABI News
11 Feb 2019
FABIans strengthening collaboration between France and South Africa
5 Feb 2019
TPCP field extension services boosted by the appointment of Dr Trudy Paap
FABI is pleased to announce that Dr Trudy Paap has been appointed with effect from February to manage the field extension services of the Tree Protection Co-operative programme (TPCP), as well as to support the development of a national pest and disease monitoring and management system that links TPCP, Institute for Commercial Forestry Research (ICFR), Industry and Government resources.
1 Feb 2019
FABIans celebrate two prestige seminars in as many days
FeiFei Liu successfully defended her PhD thesis on 29 January, becoming the second FABIan this year to earn the title “Dr”. This after she presented her prestige seminar, titled “Species diversity and host associations of plant pathogenic Ceratocystis species in China”.
31 Jan 2019
FABIans attend orchids conference
FABI postdoctoral Fellow Dr. Tanay Bose and MSc student Ms. Modjadji Makwela presented their research at theWild Orchids Southern Africa (WOSA) Conference.
29 Jan 2019
Elrea Strydom presents the first prestige seminar at FABI in 2019
Elrea Strydom fulfilled all the requirements for a PhD degree after successfully defending her thesis on 28 January. She became the first FABIan in 2019 to achieve this accolade.
Research Features
The use of genome data to characterize species and elucidate relationships, particularly between problematic taxa, has become routine practice in bacteria. Recently, researchers from FABI joined in an international effort to describe two novel genera and characterize these within the larger context of the important bacterial group Burkholderia.
A PhD student in FABI, Runlei Chang, has discovered and described 19 new fungal species from China as part of the research for his thesis. These fungi are all associated with conifer-infesting bark beetles and their mites and belong to well-known genera such as Ophiostoma and Leptographium.
Two research papers from FABI were selected as cover stories in two consecutive issues of the international journal, Plant Pathology. The journal is published by Wiley for the British Society of Plant Pathology.
Plastids play an integral role in wood formation, and yet they are routinely ignored in the study of xylogenesis in forest trees. Desre Pinard and Dr Eshchar Mizrachi have published a review highlighting the unique biology of plastids in wood, suggesting that a new type of plastid, the xylopast, exists.
Approaches for characterizing metabolic potential from genomic sequences have previously been predicted to be useful in the description of bacterial taxa. Dr Marike Palmer, has recently employed these approaches for identifying biological processes contributing to the divergence of bacteria with a variety of lifestyles.
Comparative genomics is shaping our notion of what fungal species are. Based on current data, these unique evolutionary units are separated from one another by boundaries that are porous under certain conditions. This affects our expectations regarding their population biology and evolution, and our strategies for recognizing and controlling them.
An aggressive ambrosia beetle and its fungal symbiont that has the potential to kill many tree species, were recently discovered in South Africa. This pest was detected on London Plane trees in the KwaZulu-Natal National Botanical Gardens, Pietermaritzburg. It has since been confirmed in Durban, Hartswater, Bloemfontein, George, Knysna and Johannesburg.
Workshops & Symposia
1-5 October 2018
5-9 Nov 2018
Advanced Phylogenetics
Workshop 1
2018
New Publications
Zlatkovic M, Wingfield MJ, Jami F, Slippers B. (2019) Genetic uniformity characterizes the invasive spread of Neofusicoccum parvum and Diplodia sapinea in the Western Balkans. Forest Pathology 49:e12491.
10.1111/efp.12491
Pinard D, Myburg AA, Mizrachi E. (2019) The plastid and mitochondrial genomes of Eucalyptus grandis. BMC Genomics 20(132):1-14.
10.1186/s12864-019-5444-4 
Pinard D, Fierro AC, Marchal K, Myburg AA, Mizrachi E. (2019) Organellar carbon metabolism is co-ordinated with distinct developmental phases of secondary xylem. New Phytologist
10.1186/s12864-019-5444-4
du Plessis E, Granados GM, Barnes I, Ho WH, Alexander BJR, Roux J, McTaggart AR. (2019) The pandemic strain of Austropuccinia psidii causes myrtle rust in New Zealand and Singapore. Australasian Plant Pathology :1-4.
10.1007/s13313-019-0624-x
Mangwende E, Kritzinger Q, Aveling TAS. (2019) Control of Alternaria leaf spot of coriander in organic farming. European Journal of Plant Pathology
10.1007/s10658-019-01682-6