Goals & Deliverables

The MC defined four general goals for the COST Action:

• Exchange of knowledge about the state-of-the art in phytopathology with respect to members of the Xanthomonadaceae family
• Strategic planning of approaches that need to be developed for sustainable plant protection against infection by Xanthomonadaceae
• Sharing of technical knowhow, methods and tools (lab work, bioinformatics)
• Foresightful career development for early-career investigators

In accordance with the MoU and its objectives for research coordination and capacity building, the following deliverables were defined:

1. Setup of a Twitter account, fed by the community of COST Action participants, that will notify on events, break-through discoveries, and societal aspects of developments with relevance to the EuroXanth COST Action (Transversal / Month 3)
2. Establishment and curation of a dedicated Scoop.it! account on latest scientific publications with high relevance to the EuroXanth COST Action (Transversal / Month 6)
3. Consortium website/newsletter that will provide information about events that are organized in the frame of the EuroXanth COST Action and which will disseminate network-relevant information, such as step-by-step protocols, factsheets, opinions, etc. (Transversal / Month 9)
4. Co-organisation of the 6^th Xanthomonas Genomics Conference, which will take place in Halle (Saale), Germany, in 2018 (Transversal / Month 18)
5. Protocols for detection of Xanthomonadaceae listed as quarantine organisms in Europe (EPPO A1 and A2 lists of pests recommended for regulation as quarantine pests) (WG1 / Month 24)
6. List of molecular markers useful to study the genetic diversity and population structure of plant-associated Xanthomonadaceae (WG1 / Month 24)
7. Curated, internet-accessible database for molecular typing of plant-associated Xanthomonadaceae essentially for epidemiological purposes (WG1 / Month 24)
8. Personnel from ITC (Inclusiveness Target Countries) and non-ITC trained in the use of software, databases and websites relevant for detection, molecular typing and epidemiology of bacterial pathogens (WG1 / Month 30)
9. Protocols for resistance and pathogenicity screening of the most important crop species and bacterial strains covered by the EuroXanth COST Action (WG2 & WG3 / Month 30)
10. Repertoire of important candidate bacterial factors in the microbe-eukaryote interaction at different steps of the infection/dissemination cycle (WG2 / Month 36)
11. Inventory of plant resistance genes, allelic variants and quantitative trait loci (QTL) in crop species that are effective against infection by members of the Xanthomonadaceae family (WG3 / Month 36)
12. Recommendation of disease control measures based on a better understanding of the microbe-eukaryote interaction and the effects of bio-control approaches on pathogen populations (WG4 / Month 42)
13. Trained next-generation investigators who are well connected in a stimulating trans-national career network (Transversal / Month 48)