Appendix 1:
NCR-173 Report (1998 - 2002)
Elected officers for 1998 - 2002
Chairman - Marty Dickman
Secretary - Rusty Rodriguez
Workshop Coordinator -
Rusty Rodriguez - 1998
Lisa Vaillincourt - 1999
Marty Dickman - 2000
Joan Henson - 2001
Regina Redman -2002
Repository Curator - Dave TeBeest
NCRA REP MC
CSREES REP Kitty Cardwell
Workshop meetings:
1998
Meeting Location - Port Townsend, Washington
Meeting Dates - Thursday, 10/8/98 - Sunday, 10, 11, 98
Attendance - 16
1999
Meeting Location - Mammoth Caves National Park, Kentucky
Meeting Dates - Thursday, 11/4/1999 - Sunday, 11/7/1999
Attendance - 20
2000
Meeting Location - Volcano National Park, Hawaii
Meeting Dates - Tuesday, 10/24/00 - Friday, 10/27/00
Attendance - 20
2001
Meeting Location-Bozeman Montana
Meeting Dates - Thursday ,10/4/01 - Sunday, 10/7/01
Attendance -15
2002
Meeting Location-Seattle Washington
Meeting Dates - Friday, 9/6/02 - Saturday, 9/7/02
Attendance -14
NCR-173 Accomplishments for 1998 - 2002
Collaborations Fostered:
The accomplishments resulting from NCR-173 involve research progress from
individual labs, establishment of numerous collaborations, coordination of
research efforts to better define the disease process, unification of
strain designations, use and expansion of the Colletotrichum repository,
training of graduate student, postdoctoral fellows, and technicians.
During the annual workshops, researchers have presented preliminary
and current data in an environment of open discussion and constructive
critique. This has helped the entire group focus research efforts on more
productive areas and to unite our efforts in understanding the basis of
disease in the genus Colletotrichum. In 2002, we expanded the focus to
encompass a number of other fungal genera as well. The workshops have
provided an invaluable experience for undergraduates, graduate students,
post-docs, and technicians to present data where questions are asked and
suggestions made from leaders in the field to aid in their development as
scientists.
One of the major benefits of this workgroup have involved
establishing and maintaining a culture repository so everyone can work with
the same isolates and use standard isolates for comparative purposes. This
standardization has allowed many of us to avoid generating strain-specific
data that could not be compared to other laboratories.
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Several collaborative efforts have been established as a result of
these "workshops" where individual labs are dissecting different aspects of
the disease process. We have coordinated efforts to study penetration,
early signal transduction, colonization, and the communication that results
in the expression of different symbiotic lifestyles (parasitic,
mutualistic, and commensalistic). This has culminated in defining future
directions for the workgroup which include characterizing molecular,
genetic, biochemical, microbiological, and pathological aspects of the
host-fungus interaction to help generate biological agents to control
invasive weeds and protect plants against disease. We expanded our last
workshop to include some field studies to better understand the
distribution host range, and pathology of Colletotrichum species in
habitats impacted by invasive weed species.
Collaborative Manuscripts Written/Published:
Recently, several of the members of NCR-173 have collaborated on a
manuscript describing the use of the Green Fluorescent Protein in studies
of plant-fungal interactions. This manuscript has been published in
"Applied and Environmental Microbiology" (Lorang, J.M., Tuori, R.P. ,
Martinez, J.P., Sawyer. T.L. Redman, R.S., Rollins, J.A.. Wolpert. T.J.,
Johnson, K.B. Rodriguez, R.J., Dickman, M. B., and Ciuffetti, L.M. 2001.
Green fluorescent protein is lighting up fungal biology.Appl. Env.
Microbiol.67:1987-1994), and represents a multi-laboratory effort, and
the spirit of cooperation that NCR-173 is built on. Additional manuscripts
resulting from collaborations established through NCR-173 include: "Fungi
from geothermal soils of Yellowstone National Park" (Redman, R.S.,
Litvintseva, A., Sheehan, K.B., Henson, J.H., and Rodriguez, R.J. 1999.
Applied and Environmental Microbiology. 65:5193-5197); "Field performance
of cucurbit and tomato plants infected with a nonpathogenic mutant of
Colletotrichum magna (teleomorph: Glomerella magna; Jenkins and Winstead)"
(Redman, R.S., Rossinck, M.R., Maher, S., Andrews, Q.C., Schneider, W.L.
and Rodriguez, R.J. 2002. Symbiosis. 32:55-70); and "Plant
thermotolerance conferred by fungal endophyte" (Redman, R.S., Sheehan,
K.B., Stout, R.G., Rodriguez, R.J., and Henson, J.H. 2002. Science.
298:1581). In 1998, several NCR-173 members attended the BARD
International Mycology Conference (Israel) devoted solely to the study of
Colletotrichum as a model system which resulted in the publication of a
collaborative book ("Host specificity, pathology and host pathogen
interactions of Colletotrichum". D. Prusky, S. Freeman, and M. Dickman,
eds. APS press). In October of 2002, a BARD meeting (Tahoe, CA) was
attended by several NCR-173 members to collaboratively discuss the
"Molecular perspectives of fungal biology and pathology: Current status and
future direction" which will result in an MPMI publication. Lastly, it is
important to note that due to the interactions established at the NCR-173
workshops, several collaborations have resulted in the obtainment of
funding (examples: Rodriguez and Freeman - USDA, US/IS BARD; Dickman and
Yarden - BARD; Rodriguez, Freeman, Dickman, and Yarden - US/IS BARD
workshop).
The NCR-173 workshops established in 1991, have been extremely
interactive and well attended. The spirit of scientific cooperation has
never been compromised at these meetings. More importantly, several
laboratories have benefited from these workshops as demonstrated by the
productivity of the NCR-173 group of scientists. As we have grown and
expanded, so have the interests of this diverse group, this necessitating
the proposed change in title of our group.
We believe that NCR-173 has provided an excellent forum for
scientific exchange and advancement. The multiple approaches taken by the
group to understand different aspects of pathogenicity are clearly aimed to
assist the plant pathology community to better understand host -pathogen
interactions.