Phytobiomes Alliance Newsletter – March 2024
In this issue, you will find updates on Alliance projects, Working Groups, sponsors, Coordinating Committee members and events.
Registration is now open for the Phytobiomes Conference 2024 that will take place from 19 to 21 November in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. Want to present your latest research at this major event? Submit and abstract for consideration!
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Alliance Projects
- MICROBES-4-CLIMATE (funded by the Horizon Europe program)
The project seeks to unravel the intricate interactions between soil, microorganisms, plants, and the environment, it brings together 31 partners (including the Phytobiomes Alliance) from 13 countries. The project officially kicked-off on 20-21 February 2024 with a meeting in Braga, Portugal.
Read more - United States Culture Collection Network (funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation – NSF)
The network is currently building a searchable registry of plant-associated microbial culture collections from universities, industry, and government agencies. It includes all types of collections, from university small research collections to large federally funded culture collections.
Watch the December 2023 webinar for insights into the network activities. - Genome Sequence-Based Classification System for Microbes (funded by the USDA Animal Plant Health Inspection Service – APHIS).
The overall project goal is to develop a data-driven framework for improving the regulation and detection of Ralstonia solanacearum (Rs) strains that threaten US agriculture. The second phase of the Alliance-coordinated project was completed in December 2023 and manuscripts are currently in preparation.
Project pages: 1st phase – 2nd phase
For information about other Alliance projects, go to https://phytobiomesalliance.org/projects/
News from the Alliance Working Groups
Membership in Alliance working groups is open to Alliance sponsors, affiliates, and academic leaders of Alliance supported or led scientific projects.
- Plant Microbiome: The group wrote a prospective article discussing the challenges and opportunities associated with plant microbiome research within the broader context of phytobiomes. The article was submitted to a journal in February.
- Regulatory: The group is working on a white paper on research needs for regulation of microbes, and on the need to use genome-based risk assessment and phenotypic information to better inform regulations.
- Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA): The group is working on an industry wide survey to determine the needs and gaps within CEA agriculture.
- Animal Microbiomes: The group is currently being organized. The aim is to identify knowledge and resource gaps that need to be addressed to advance our understanding of the interconnection between people, animals, plants, and their shared environments, as defined in the One Health approach.
- Soil Health: The group is currently being organized.
New Alliance Sponsors
New Coordinating Committee Members
- Nichole Ginnan, new representative for Pennsylvania State University
- Jennifer Lilly, representing Mosaic Biosciences
- Roland Wilhelm, representing Purdue University’s College of Agriculture
- Matthew Wallenstein and Alberto Piaggesi representing Syngenta
- Albert Yi, representing Earth Microbial
Upcoming Alliance Events
- Webinar – “Plant Phenotyping – Technologies and Targets”
13 March 2024, online
Presented by Uli Schurr, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany
Register here - Workshop – Genome Sequencing and Microbial Resources
10-11 June 2024, Davis, CA, USA
Organized by the United State Culture Collection Network
More information - International Phytobiomes Conference 2024
19-21 November 2024, St. Louis, MO, USA
Registration and abstract submission are now open.
Website
Interested in presenting a webinar for the phytobiomes community? Contact Isabelle Caugant at caugant@eversoleassociates.com
Missed a webinar? Rewatch them on the Alliance YouTube channel.
Media Partnerships with Event Organizers
- World AgTech Innovation Summit
19-20 March 2024 | San Francisco, CA, USA
Register here with the code PA10 to get 10% off - Indoor AgTech Innovation Summit
24-25 June 2024 | Chicago, IL, USA
Register here with the code PA10 to get 10% off
Upcoming phytobiome-related events
- 19-20 March – World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit USA, San Francisco, CA, USA
- 9-11 April – BSAS Conference 2024, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
- 13-15 May – Mid-West Microbiome Symposium, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA
- 14-17 May – Food System Microbiomes 2024, Torino, Italy
- 30-31 May – 2024 One Health Microbiome Symposium, Pennsylvania State University, PA, USA
- 10-11 June – USCCN workshop “Genome Sequencing and Microbial Resources”, UC Davis, CA, USA
- 13-17 June – ASM Microbe 2024, Atlanta, GA, USA
- 17-21 June – 5th Plant Microbiome Symposium, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- 24-25 June – Indoor AgTech Innovation Summit, Chicago, IL, USA
- 7-12 July – ICPPB & Biocontrol 2024, Blacksburg, VA, USA
- 10-11 July – U.S. Biostimulants Summit 2024, St. Louis, MO, USA
- 15-18 July – miCROPe 2024, Vienna, Austria
- 27-30 July – Plant Health 2024, Memphis, TN, USA
For updates, check the event calendar on the website. If you are aware of an event on phytobiome-related topics and if that event is not listed on the website, please let us know.
Our Sponsors
The Phytobiomes Alliance is sponsored by Syngenta, Eversole Associates, INRAE, Valent BioSciences, Colorado State University, FarmBox Foods, Ginkgo Bioworks, Mosaic Biosciences, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, NewLeaf Symbiotics, Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences, Pivot Bio, Purdue University College of Agriculture, Trace Genomics, the Waterloo Centre for Microbial Research, Aphea.Bio, and AIT Austrian Institute of Technology.
To learn more about the Alliance, visit phytobiomesalliance.org and follow us on Twitter and on LinkedIn.