International Conference on Plant Physiology & Pathology June 09-10, 2016 Dallas, Texas, USA

Syeda Maryam completed his PhD in Animal production and Quality in 2016 at age of 31 years from University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. She has published three articles and 6 resumes.

The availability of green herbage (GH) and dead herbage (DH) was evaluated in signalgrass (Brachiaria decumbens) during all the seasons and the highest GH was noted in summer (179.97 g) and three times lower (35.3 g) was reported in winter. The highest GH occurred at dose of 150 and 300 kg at 10 cm height (37.36 g and 25.94 g) in autumn and summer, respectively. While, the lowest GH was reported at 0 kg (2.53 g and 0.70 g) at sward heights of 20 and 10 cm in winter, respectively. The highest DH (14.28 g) was produced at 150 kg N at sward height of 20 cm while lowest at 0 kg N in autumn at 10 cm height (0.14 g). For GH, lower production was at 0 kg N (27.85) and highest in autumn 96.58. While amongst sward heights; in winter at 10 cm (24.4) gives lower values as to 20 cm (33.3). In summer the leaf to stem (L:S) proportions decreases significantly (1.45+0.0447) while it’s been highest in winter (11.41+1.7256). In autumn, a significant difference was observed in L:S by the heights of 10 and 20 (3.1 vs. 1.7), respectively. In green to dead (G:D) proportion, the ratio lessened (13.63) significantly by 2.5 times, producing more green parts at 300 kg N as compare to the highest (32.34) at 0 kg N. For air dry matter (ADM) and G:D, no N*H interactions were found, while for GM and L:S; significant interactions were found in winter and autumn. All the variable behaves quadratically with increase in N dose presenting an increase in ADM and GH, while L:S and G:D showed a decline. The average availability of ADM was 28.60%, green herbage 62.38 g, dead herbage 24.11 %, and L:S (4.7%) of the Signalgrass and ADM and GM increases from April till Jun and the lowest ADM production was reported in winter (23.66) and the highest in autumn (38.56). While the 300 kg N, enhance plants ADM production at its best.

Amalia Z. Berna is a Senior Research Scientist at CSIRO. She received her PhD degree in Applied Biological Science from Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. Amalia leads the volatile biomarker discovery component of the Innovative Bioproducts group, her research focuses on the detection of low abundance volatiles release above food, plants and in human breath, with the aim of providing faster tools for predicting quality and health. Amalia is author of over 26 refereed international journal papers with >500 life citations and is inventor on two patent families.

Ratoon Stunting Disease (RSD), caused by Leifsonia xyli subsp. xyli, is one of the most significant diseases to affect sugarcane. Incidence of the disease depends on how strictly growers follow control measures aimed at excluding infected cane from the propagation cycle. In the past sixty years farm, hygiene, hot water treatment and use of approved seed plots have remained unchanged at the core of RSD management. Some species of pathogenic bacteria can be characterised by the volatile chemicals they produce. In this work, we harvested more than 10 varieties of sugar-cane from different locations in the Queensland region of Australia over two harvest years. The headspace of sugar sap from infected and uninfected plants was analysed using solid phase micro extraction and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. We used maximum mutual information (MI) to select the compounds that best differentiate between the infected and uninfected samples. We validated the selected compounds using two simple classifiers – Support Vector Machine and k Nearest Neighbours– through one-against-all cross-validation. In Year 1 (n=146 samples), we were able to predict the infection status of plants with better than 98% accuracy using VOCs signatures. In Year 2 (n=140 samples), larger numbers of cultivars from more diverse sites were analysed with the results showing correct prediction 95% of the time. We also found that there was no correlation between the amount of bacteria and the levels of the diagnostic volatiles indicating that the changes observed are potentially due to a specific systemic response of the plant to this pathogen.

I just submit my Master’s thesis (thesis title: "Effect of substrates on plant transpiration rate under several Vapour Pressure Deficit level" with Panicum maximum cv. tanzania and Pepper (Capsicum capsaularis) as studying MSc in Agricultural Sciences in the tropics and sub tropics at the University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany. I obtained my Bachelor in Agriculture and another Masters in Genetics and Plant Breeding (thesis title: Screening of salt tolerant genotypes in vitro in tomato) from Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. I worked as an “Assistant researcher” at “Eurofins Agroscience Services Ecotox GmbH” Agro based company for almost two years as part time basis in Germany. I also worked at Genetics and molecular Biological Laboratory for one and half year as a “Research Assistant”.

Vapour pressure deficit (VPD) is considered as an important environmental factor that affect transpiration rate (TR) in plants. In this study, two different plants, Panicum (Panicum tanzania) and Pepper (Capsicum capsaularis) with 4 different substrates (hydroponic, organic, sand and mineral) subjected to low (0.50-1.5) and high VPD (2.50-3.90) environments to study their substrate effects on plant transpiration rate in 3 different growth stage (31, 37 and 43 days after sowing). The highest transpiration rate of Panicum measured in hydroponic condition (5.44) under higher VPD level and lower leaf area. The lowest TR was measured in mineral substrate (0.21) under lower VPD level with large leaf area. In Pepper (C3) plant, the highest TR noted in mineral substrate (2.08) under high VPD (3.29), comparing lower leaf area to other substrates. The lowest TR indicated in sandy soil (0.17) with lower VPD level and large leaf area. The results showed that sand substrate has the lowest transpiration rate in both plants and hydroponic condition showed highest transpiration rate as well. Other substrates rate in between two of them.

Moges Retta is a PhD student at Catholic University of Leuven under the faculty of bioscience engineering. In collaboration with Wageningen University, The netherlands, we investigate gas exchange in photosynthesis using multiscale models of gas diffusion in plant organs. We have published three articles in high impact journals so far.

The mechanism of photosynthesis in C4 crops depends on the archetypal Kranz-anatomy. To examine how the leaf anatomy, as altered by nitrogen supply and leaf age, affects the bundle sheath conductance (gbs), maize (Zea mays L.) plants were grown under three contrasting nitrogen levels. Combined gas exchange and chlorophyll fluorescence measurements were done on fully grown leaves at two leaf ages. The measured data were combined with a biochemical model of C4 photosynthesis to estimate gbs. The leaf microstructure and ultrastructure were quantified using images obtained from micro-computed tomography and microscopy. There was also a strong positive correlation between gbs and leaf nitrogen content (LNC) while old leaves had lower gbs than young leaves. Leaf thickness, cell wall thickness of bundle sheath cells and surface area of bundle sheath cells per unit leaf area (Sb) correlated with gbs although they were not significantly affected by LNC. As a result, the increase of gbs with LNC was little explained by the alteration of leaf anatomy. In contrast, the combined effect of LNC and leaf age on Sb was responsible for differences in gbs between young leaves and old leaves. Future investigations should consider changes at the level of plasmodesmata and membranes along the CO2 leakage pathway to unravel LNC and age effects further.

S N Al-Nadhari has completed his PhD in Plant Pathology (Plant Nematology) at College of Food and Agriculture, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia in 2014. H is currently working as Researcher and reviewer in Technology and Innovation Unit in Rector's for Graduate studies & Scientific Research Sciences.

A greenhouse study was conducted to compare the relative efficacy of different approaches to manage Meloidogyne incognita on green bean. These approaches include chemical (fumigant, non-fumigant, seed dressing, and seed dip), biological (the egg-parasitic fungus, Paecilomyces lilacinus and the mycorrhizal fungus Glomus sp.), physical (soil solarization), and cultural (chicken litter and urea) methods. Nine different control materials and application methods were compared. Two important parameters were considered: plant response (plant growth and root galling) and nematode reproduction (production of eggs and the reproduction factor Rf). The results showed that the use of chicken litter as an organic fertilizer severely affected the growth and survival of the seedlings. Therefore, this treatment was removed from the evaluation test. All of the other treatments were found to be effective against nematode reproduction, but with different levels of efficacy. The eight treatments decreased (38.9-99.8%) root galling, increased plant growth and suppressed nematode reproduction. Based on three important criteria, namely, the gall index (GI), egg mass index (EMI), and reproduction factor (RF), the tested materials and methods were categorized into three groups according to their relative control efficacy under the applied test conditions. The three groups were as follows: 1) the relatively high effective group (GI=1.0-1.4, Rf=0.07-0.01), which included the fumigant dazomet, the non-fumigant fenamiphos, soil solarization, and seed dip with 1 fenamiphos; 2) the relatively moderate effective group (GI=3.4-4.0, Rf=0.24-0.60), which included seed dressing with fenamiphos and urea; and 3) the relatively less effective group (GI=5.0, Rf=32.2-37.2), which included Paecilomyces lilacinus and Glomus sp.

Javed Hussain Umrani is working as a PhD scholar at the Biotechnology Research Institute (BRI), Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China. His research experience includes various programs, contributions and participation in different countries for diverse fields of study. His research interests as a researcher reflect him in wide range of publications in various national and international journals.

Drought and high temperature are major environmental factors that severely limit plant productivity worldwide. Agricultural production faces serious threats from frequent extreme weather conditions. Maize (Zea mays L.) is a major crop greatly affected by drought and high temperature in the China and worldwide. Previously expression of ABP9 in transgenic Arabidopsis leads to enhanced tolerance to temperature and oxidative stresses. It is proved that the expression of ABP9 gene maize on the basis of different superior phenotypes for drought tolerance is essential and prerequisite for grain development. In this research, we evaluated ten events of [Pubi-ABP9 (06 construct)] of transgenic maize for drought tolerance at vegetative & reproductive stages under field conditions and identified several phenotypes showed high tolerance to drought. Tolerant construct of [Pubi-ABP9.1 (06 construct)] (611, 616 & 617) at vegetative stage and drought applied during reproductive stage (617& 618) events were able to maintain comparatively adequate phenotypes chlorophyll fluorescence, NDVI, reduced ASI & enough grain yield was recorded compared to the non-transgenic controls. The use of such resources to produce transgenic maize which are able to alleviate the negative impacts of drought stresses on the growth, development and grain yield of maize.

Mrs Nadege Soumou Wansim is currently working as a PhD scholar at Northwest A&F University, China. She has published numerous research papers and articles in reputed journals and has various other achievements in the related studies. She has extended her valuable service towards the scientific community with her extensive research work.

Barley yellow dwarf viruses (BYDVs) belong to the family Luteoviridae and cause disease in cereals. Because of the large and complex genome of cereal plants, it is difficult to study host-virus interactions. In order to establish a model host system for the studies on BYDVs, we examined the susceptibility of a monocot model plant, Brachypodium distachyon, to BYDV-GAV infection. Fourteen days after BYDV-GAV inoculation by aphid transmission, B. distachyon plants (inbred line Bd21-3) showed conspicuous disease symptoms such as leaf reddening, dwarfness and root stunting. Virus accumulation was detected in both shoots and roots using reverse transcription PCR and triple antibody sandwich ELISA. Compared with infected wheat plants, B. distachyon plants developed more severe disease symptoms and accumulated a higher level of BYDV-GAV. Under transmission electron microscope, we observed that virus particles accumulated in companion cells and BYDV-GAV infection was associated with the deformation of chloroplasts in the infected leaves of B. distachyon plants. Our results suggest that B. distachyon is a suitable and promising experimental model plant for the host-BYDV-GAV pathosystem and possibly for other BYDVs.

Sameh Mhamdi has completed his PhD from Tunisia Institute of Agronomy (INAT) and INRA Nancy. His research focuses on Biological Diversity, Dynamics of Plant Populations and Functioning of oak species.

Outside of the systematic, leaf longevity (Leaf lifespan) is used to classify trees into two main groups: evergreen and deciduous species. It varies significantly according to the forms of life between taxonomic groups and the long succession gradient. Co-occurrence of winter-deciduous and evergreen oaks is common in some Mediterranean type climate areas. Nevertheless, in the Tunisian forests, we don’t have enough information about the functional inter-specific diversity among oak species, particularly in the mixed stand marked by the simultaneous presence of cork oak (Quercus suber L, evergreen oak), zeen oak (Quercus canariensis Willd., deciduous oak) and their putative hybrid (Quercus afares Pomel, deciduous), endemic oak species threatened with extinction. This study has been designed to estimate the leaf lifespan, the relative growth rate in height (RGRH) and in basal diameter (RGRBD), and the count of different growth flushes in samplings in semi-controlled conditions (nursery), it made at 4 weeks interval and observations on each plant over 17 months. The aim is to better characterize and compare the hybrid to the co-occurring parental species for these functional traits. Differences were observed between parental species and their hybrid, both at growth and phenology. Indeed, Q. suber saplings reached higher total height and number of growth flushes (7 flushes per year) then saplings of Q. canariensis had established an average of 5 flushes per year, while Q. afares individuals showed much less growth flushes (2 units per year) and are the less performing specie. Also, the leaf lifespan of seedling of two species (Q. suber and Q. canariensis) has exceeded the duration of the experiment on most of cohorts, but their hybrid (Q. afares) lost all leaves on all cohorts. The shorter leaf lifespan of Q. afares is in accordance with its phenology in the field but for Q. canariensis the long leaf lifespan contrast with observations for adult trees in the field where phenology is strictly annual. This study allowed us to differentiate the hybrid Q. afares of both parental species through the characterization of growth and leaf lifespan at seeding stage.