The EuroXanth COST Action held its 3rd Annual Conference on “Integrating science on Xanthomonadaceae for integrated plant disease management in Europe” in Lednice, Czech Republic, from 9 to 11 September 2019. The conference welcomed >90 participants and served as a platform to exchange knowledge and to share technical knowhow with respect to members of the Xanthomonadaceae family.
The conference addressed topics of all four Working Groups:
Session 1: Diagnostics & Diversity – Population Structure
Session 2: Pathogen Biology
Session 3: Genetic Resistance – Host Defence
Session 4: Disease Management – Vector Control
All four topics were well represented. In total, 28 oral presentations and 6 short poster talks were given and 32 posters were presented. In addition, 6 posters were selected by the ECI evaluation committee for a short presentation and the WG2/WG3 Leaders/Vice Leaders presented the Wiki project on bacterial virulence factors and plant resistance genes. The program and the abstracts are available for DOWNLOAD: EuroXanth_Third Annual Conference-Abstract Book (ISBN 978-80-7509-672-2).
The conference program and its social activities gave ample time for interesting discussions and provided a good starting point for new collaborations. No doubt that this large gathering of European scientists working on Xanthomonas and Xylella can be considered as a great success of the EuroXanth COST Action. The success is also linked to the great job that was done by the organisers, ass. prof. Dr. Miroslav Baránek (Mendel University in Brno, Czech Republic) and his colleagues Dr. Aleš Eichmeier, Dr. Jana Čechová, Filip Gazdík, Jakub Pečenka and Eliška Peňázová, all from the Mendeleum – Institute of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Lednice. Thanks a lot to all of you for your commitment!
Keynote speakers:
| Name | Affiliation | Country |
| Rodrigo ALMEIDA | University of California, Berkeley, CA | USA |
| Helvécio Della COLETTA-FILHO | Centro de Citricultura Sylvio Moreira, Cordeiropolis, SP | Brazil |
| Leonardo DE LA FUENTE | Auburn University, Auburn, AL | USA |
| Jeffrey B. JONES | University of Florida, Gainesville, FL | USA |
Scientific Committee of the conference:
| Name | Role | Country | Working group |
| KOEBNIK, Ralf | Chair | FR | WG2 |
| CATARA, Vittoria | Vice Chair | IT | WG3 |
| COSTA, Joana | WG1 Leader | PT | WG1 |
| POTHIER, Joël | WG2 Leader | CH | WG2 |
| BOCH, Jens | WG3 Leader | DE | WG3 |
| STEFANI, Emilio | WG4 Leader | IT | WG4 |
| KOVACS, Tamas | WG4 Vice Leader | HU | WG4 |
| BARÁNEK, Miroslav | MC Member | CZ | WG1 |
| BERAN, Pavel | MC Member | CZ | WG1 |
The ECI Committee evaluated the posters and short poster talks of early career investigators and nominated Rita P. Fernandes (University of Porto, Portugal) for the “Best ECI Poster” prize:
| Name | Affiliation | Country |
| ARES YEBRA, Aitana | Instituto Pedro Nunes, Coimbra | PT |
| KALUZNA, Monika | Research Institute of Horticulture, Skierniewice | PL |
| MORELLI, Massimiliano | Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection, Bari | IT |
| PENAZOVA, Eliška | Mendel University, Brno | CZ |
| SCIALLANO, Coline | Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Montpellier | FR |
With kind regards,
Ralf Koebnik, Chair of the COST Action
Miroslav Baránek, Chair of Local Organising Committee
Isabelle Sciacco, Grant Holder Administrator
Venue
The conference was held at the Faculty of Horticulture in Lednice. Lednice is a village in South Moravia, approximately 50 km south of Brno and 80 km north of Vienna, Austria.
Lednice was inscribed in 1996 on the UNESCO World Heritage List (together with the twin manor of Valtice) as “an exceptional example of the designed landscape that evolved in the Enlightenment and afterwards under the care of a single family.” Lednice contains several palaces and the largest park in the country, which covers 200 km2. A visit to the Castle of Lednice will be organised.
How to get to Lednice
The conference will started in the morning of September 9th. You had therefore need to arrive in Lednice the day before. The conference ended at lunchtime on September 11th.
To travel to Lednice, different surrounding airports can be used as Vienna Airport (80 km), Brno Airport (50 km; usually significantly more expensive tickets), Bratislava Airport (80 km) or the main airport in the Czech Republic – Prague Airport (260 km). For subsequent travel to Lednice it is recommended to use a train to Břeclav (local transport hub), from where you can either take a bus (every hour until 21:00, 1€) or a taxi (approx. 15€). For travel information in the Czech Republic, please visit the travel planner and/or Czech Tourism. Meaningful recommendations how to reach Lednice from individual airports are also suggested by GoogleMaps applications.