BAHAWALPUR:The Department of Plant Pathology, the Islamia University of Bahawalpur in collaboration with the Pakistan Phytopathological Society conducted an International seminar on Plant-Pathogen Interactions.
The seminar was conducted to emphasize the importance of understanding Plant-Pathogen interactions. The knowledge of Plant-Pathogen Interactions is vital for the prevention of diseases in plants, which would be beneficial to agricultural production and global food security. Plant Pathogens cause huge losses in natural plant systems both in terms of economics and production in the agriculture systems. While many biotic constraints are well known, and confronted with variable success, the occurrence of emerging pathogens and the progressive incidence of novel virulent strains, races, or pathotypes is evident.
Moreover, the practicability of some of the currently available crop protection measures is questioned. Understanding how pathogens adopt an appropriate adaptive mechanism during the infection process, and the exploitation of the diversity of mechanisms that plants process to control the genetic resistance or susceptibility to plant diseases will aid in conserving nature and ecosystem services and is also of benefit for agriculture and forestry.
Vice-Chancellor of The Islamia University of Bahawalpur Eng. Prof Dr Athar Mahboob, Dean Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, Prof Dr Muhammad Iqbal, Registrar, Prof Dr Moazzam Jamil, President Pakistan Phytopathological Society Prof Dr Tariq Mukhtar joined the event as a Guest of Honor.
The event was arranged by Dr Muhammad Naveed Aslam Malghani, Chairman Department of Plant Pathology, and the session was moderated by co-organizers of the Department Ambreen Maqsood, Dr Taimoor Shakeel, Dr Waqas Ashraf, and Dr Anam Moosa. Prof Dr Gitta Coaker, Department of Plant Pathology, University of California Davis, and Prof Dr Shahbaz Talib Sahi, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Agriculture Faisalabad joined the seminar as guest speakers.
Dr Muhammad Naveed Aslam Malghani said that the Department of Plant Pathology is continuously on its way to bring forward such informative sessions for the scientific community around the world. He said that the response from the scientific community for this seminar has been amazing. The seminar received more than 1770 registration across the globe with more than 300 foreign participants, 150 faculty members, more than 100 participants from research and industry, and the rest of the participants were students.
He further said we are thankful to the international participants from the USA, UK, Germany, South Africa, India, Sweden, Saudi Arabia, China, Philippines, Bangladesh, Australia, Argentina, Kenya, Nigeria, Turkey, and many other countries who have registered for the seminar.
Prof Dr Gitta Coaker from the University of California, USA, and Prof Dr Shahbaz Talib Sahi delivered their talks on plant-pathogen interactions, understanding their mechanisms, and the current and future trends on adopting appropriate measures for increasing agricultural production.
Dr Gitta Coaker talked about vector-borne pathogen effectors and the role of immunity in restricting infections. She gave a detailed account of how vector-borne pathogens interact with their plant hosts and how the plants respond to counter their attack.
She emphasized that understanding the role of plant immunity against pathogens will help to develop preventive measures to combat the diseases. The identification of regulatory components involved in the plant-pathogen interactions will be of major importance for sustainable plant disease management.
Dr Shahbaz Talib Sahi talked about underlying structural and genetic mechanisms of actions of plant defense to counter the attack of pathogens. He emphasized that the accurate understanding of the basic mechanisms in plant-pathogen interactions is critical to developing the control measures.