Phytobiomes Alliance Newsletter – April 2018
New projects
Phytobiomes Accelerated Discovery
In March the Alliance submitted a project proposal, to the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research. If approved, the project will establish a framework for collecting physical and biological data relevant to phytobiomes (including a whole genome-based classification and identification for phytobiome related microbes) and identify unifying and agroecosystem-specific responses of the phytobiome to drought stress.
Regulatory Science Roadmap
Over the coming year, the Alliance will develop a regulatory science roadmap aimed at developing science projects, tools, and resources to assist the regulatory review and approval of products that include or are phytobiome-related microbes, microbial communities, genetically engineered microbes and communities, biopesticides, and biostimulants. The Alliance is establishing a “Working Group” on Regulatory Science and will organize a workshop with regulatory officials. For more information, please contact Kellye Eversole.
Publications
Press releases
- 13 February 2018 – French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development Joins the Alliance
Slides
- We developed a set of standards slides about phytobiomes, the Alliance, its goals and priorities. Contact us if you wish to receive those slides to add to your presentations.
Alliance Events
SAVE THE DATE for these upcoming Alliance events:
- 4-6 December 2018, International Phytobiomes Conference 2018, organized by the Alliance, will be held in Montpellier, France.
- 7 December 2018, Phytobiomes Alliance coordinating committee meeting, Montpellier, France.
Past Alliance events:
- On 17 January 2018, the Alliance organized the workshop “Exploring Phytobiomes” during the Plant and Animal Genome Conference in San Diego, California, USA.
- On 16 February, the Alliance organized a session called “Phytobiome Research to Improve Agricultural Productivity” during the AAAS Annual Meeting in Austin, Texas, USA.
Presentations from both events are available on the website
Upcoming events
- 14-15 May 2018 – Partnerships in Biocontrol, Biostimulants, & Microbiome Congress Europe, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
- 22 May 2018 – Workshop “La métagénomique pour la gestion des écosystèmes agricoles et l’amélioration des plantes”, Paris, France
- 17-30 June 2018 – Summer Soil Institute, Colorado State University, CO, USA – Application deadline is 15 April
- 18-21 June 2018 – 10th International Symposium on Fungal Endophytes of Grasses, Salamanca, Spain
- 19-22 June 2018 – 21st Penn State Plant Biology Symposium: Wild and Tamed Phytobiomes, University Park, PA, USA.
- 15-20 July 2018 – 9th International Symbiosis Society Congress, Corvallis, OR, USA
- 23-25 July 2018 – Crops & Chemicals USA, Raleigh, NC, USA, with a focus on biostimulant and biopesticide development and regulatory approval.
- 28 July 2018 – International Agricultural Microbiome Research Coordination Network meeting, Boston, MA, USA
- 1-2 October 2018 – Partnerships in Biocontrol, Biostimulants & Microbiome/Plant Genomics & Gene Editing, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
A list of events (upcoming and past) is available on the website.
If you are going to or are aware of a conference, workshop, or seminar on phytobiome-related topics and if that event is not listed on the website, please let us know.
New Coordinating Committee Members
We are pleased to welcome:
- Trevor Charles from the Waterloo Centre for Microbial Research (Waterloo University, Canada) as project leader on indoor agriculture.
- Angela Sessitsch from the Austrian Institute of Technology as leader of the projects MICROMETABOLITE, SolACE, and Setaria seed microbiome.
- Valérie Verdier, as representative of the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development.
Our Sponsors
The Phytobiomes Alliance is sponsored by Bayer CropScience, Eversole Associates, Monsanto, The Climate Corporation, the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA), Indigo Agriculture, the Noble Research Institute, NewLeaf Symbiotics, the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD), Colorado State University, the University of Maryland, Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences, the American Phytopathological Society, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and BioConsortia.
To learn more about our sponsors, have a look at the individual sponsor pages on the website.