From September 27 to October 3, Professor Li Chunjie, Professor Li Yanzhong, Associate Prodessor Tian Pei and Dr. Zhang Xingxu, who belong to the team of academician Nan Zhibiao, attended the 9th International Symposium of Fungal Endophyte of Grasses (ISFEG) hosted by Agricultural and Biological Research Center of Victoria, Australia.
The symposium consists of 9 themes, 13 keynote presentations and 40 plenary presentations. More than 200 scholars from 15 countries attended the symposium. The topics of the conference include the evolution and ecology of the fungal endophyte, the inheritance and genome of the fungal endophyte, the metabolism of fungal endophyte, the exploration in fungal endophyte, the interaction between the fungal endophyte and animals, the role of fungal endophyte in the agricultural system, the molecular breeding of fungal-endophyte-flora symbiosis, the flora-microorganism symbiosis, the systems biology of the flora-microorganism and so on.
Professor Li Chunjie, deputy director of the State Key Laboratory of Grassland Ecosystem of Lanzhou University delivered a keynote report entitled as “Epichloë endophyte discovery related to native grasses in western China” and presided over the meeting of “Theme Four – Exploration in Fungal Endophyte”. Associate Professor Tian Pei and Dr. Chen Shuihong respectively delivered the plenary reports of“Effects of Epichloë endophyte on phenotype of Festuca sinensis”,“Allelopathic effects of Pedicularis kansuensis water extract on germination and seedling growth in endophyte symbiosis” and“Distinct transcripts of wild barley symbiotic with Epichloë endophyte under salt stress”.
During the symbosium, the team of academician Nan Zhibiao, together with academician German Spangenberg, who is an internationally-renowned expert on fungal endophyte, academic master of LZU Grassland Agriculture 111 Talent Introduction Base Project, director of the symposium and dean of the Agricultural and Biological Research Center of Victoria, Australia, arranged cooperation on the research on such programs as the sequencing of the fungal endophyte genome. The team also had a meeting with 7 other scholars, including Professor Christophor Schardl, an internationally-renowned expert on fungal endophyte and dean of the Flora Pathology Department of the University of Kentucky, Dr. Carolyn Young from the US Samuel Roberts Nobel Foundation and Dr. Cook Daniel from the Agricultural Research Institute under the United States Department of Agriculture and discussed over the application for the 2016 Sino-US Commission Biodiversity Project. The team also exchanged with Dr. Linda Johnson, leader of the Flora-Microorganism Interaction Research Team of the New Zealand National Agricultural Research Center, Dr. Alison Popay, Dr. Christine Voicy, Dr. Joy Lin, Wayne Simpson and Wei Zhang on the progress of the Sino-New Zealand Joint Fungal Endophyte Breeding Project. The team also had exchanges with Dr. Adrian Leuchtmann from the Swiss Integrated Biology Institute, Professor Barry Scott and Professor Jan Schmid from the New Zealand Massey University, Dr. Kari Saikkonen from the Finland MTI Agricultural Product Department Plant Production Research Institute, Professor Jochen Krauss from the University of Wuerzburg in German, Dr. Inigo Zabalgogeazcoa from the University of Buenos Aires in Spain and others on cooperative research, joint publishing of articles, mutual visits and so on.
This symposium is a continuation of the 8th ISFEG as well as another event within the international fungal endophyte area. The 10th ISFEG shall be held in the middle of June 2018 at Salamanca, Spain.
After the meeting, Associate Professor Tian Pei was invited by academician German Spangenberg to have in-depth exchange with the research team on fungal endophyte in Australia Victoria Agricultural and Biological Research Center from October 5 to October 9, during which they discussed over the latest progress on “breeding perennial ryegrass, tall fescue and sweet singnalgrass with fungal endophyte” and the development of the detection and inoculation of fungal endophyte, alkaloids detection technology, whole genome sequencing and bioinformatics.
(Translated by Wei Xianchao; proofread by Sissi Xu)
