Disease resistance experts brought together

The first annual meeting of the SUSTAIN (Pathogen-informed strategies for sustainable broad-spectrum crop resistance) Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action takes place this October, bringing together European scientists and breeders seeking to translate breakthroughs in plant-pathogen interaction research into effective breeding strategies for durable disease resistance in cereal and Solanaceous crops.

SUSTAIN notes: “Restrictions on the use of pesticides mean that there is a need for new, sustainable pest control methods. Exploiting natural plant disease resistance is highly attractive, as it reduces the dependency on pesticides. However, the use of crop resistance is bound by two factors: the limited number of resistance sources against important diseases in major crops and the frequent breakdown of resistance due to rapid evolution of pathogens.

“Both issues can now be addressed by innovative and powerful approaches developed on the basis of recent and unprecedented progress in research on plants and their pathogens fostered by the revolution in next generation sequencing and the investigation of pathogen effector proteins. The challenge is to implement these novel pathogen-informed strategies for the generation of sustainable broad-spectrum crop resistance.”

The first meeting takes place in Birnam, Scotland, from October 9 to11, 2013.