Report on the 2021 Canadian Phytopathological Society – Eastern Ontario Regional Meeting 

In 2021, the CPS Eastern Ontario Regional Meeting took place as a symposium in the Joint CanFunNet and Great Lakes Mycology 2021 Virtual Conference (CFNGLM 21) on May 26 –28. The CPS-EOR symposium was composed of two keynote speeches, 14 standard talks (15 mins) and 3 flash talks (5 mins) arranged in five sessions (moderated by Drs Wen Chen and Miao Liu). Under the theme of “Plant Pathogens – Omics, Systematics, and Disease Control,” the presentations covered a wide range of topics related to plant pathogens, including genomics, proteomics, host-parasite interaction, taxonomy, population biology, host specificity, mycotoxins, incidence of novel and/or re-emerging fungal pathogens, natural products and new technologies for disease control. Two keynote speeches were presented by Drs. Linda Harris (Ottawa Research Development Centre, AAFC) and Tyler Avis (Carleton University) entitled “Gramillins: Host-specific phytotoxins produced by cereal pathogen Fusarium graminearum” and “Biochemical insights into the antimicrobial properties of membrane-targeting compounds produced by antagonistic microorganisms on fungal plant pathogens.” Dr. Barry Saville, the President of CPS delivered an introduction to the Canadian Phytopathological Society and upcoming CPS-CSA-CSHS Tri-Society conference. The sessions were well attended by over 260 cumulative audience members. Benefitting from the interaction with two other scientific communities and from the virtual platform, the presenters were from several countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany and USA. Sara Stricker (University of Guelph) won a student presentation competition for her flash talk: “Understanding Stemphylium vesicarium in Ontario.”

The Canadian Phytopathological Society was honoured as a Platinum sponsor by CFNGLM 21.

Submitted by Miao Liu, CPS Eastern Ontario Regional representative

Report on the 2019 Canadian Phytopathological Society – Eastern Ontario Regional Meeting 

The Canadian Phytopathological Society Eastern Ontario Region meeting was held on December 6, 2019, at the Ottawa Research and Development Centre (ORDC), 960 Carling Avenue, Ottawa, ON. Over 68 participants, included research scientists, professors, professionals, technicians, and students, from Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), Carleton University, Trent University, University of Ottawa, and companies.

The organizing committee would like to thank the sponsors of the CPS-EOR meeting for their generous support: CPS for supporting regional meetings ($1000), SeCan ($200), Syngenta ($150), and ThermoFisher ($300) to cover the awards for student competition and the coffee breaks. We also thank ORDC (AAFC) for facility support.

The opening remarks were given by Dr. Michèlle Marcotte, the Science Director of ORDC, who welcomed the attendees and highlighted the opportunities for CPS to pursue during the up-coming International Year of Plant Health 2020. A special session, Functional genomics in “big data” era, followed. Two guest speakers, Drs. Barry Savile (Trent University, president of Canadian Phytopathological Society) and Myron Smith (Carleton University), addressed the application of whole genome sequencing technology to functional genomics.  Eight contributed talks were given by Gopal Subramaniam (AAFC), Kristina Shostak (Carleton University/AAFC), Johnathan Mack (Carleton University/AAFC), Tom Witte (Carleton University/AAFC), Claire Gahagan (University of Ottawa/AAFC), Scott Redhead and Taylor Hutter (AAFC), Sylvia Chi (AAFC) and David Overy (AAFC) focusing on the topics of Fusarium genomics, mycology, metagenomics and biocontrol of plant diseases. Five posters reported on biocontrol of plant diseases, novel nitrogen pathway, and historical female figures in plant pathology. Handouts of the International Year of Plant Health 2020 were distributed to promote the initiative. Serine Ramlawi (under the supervision of Dr. Tyler Avis) and Claire Gahagan (under the supervision of Drs. Wen Chen and Stéphane Aris-Brosou) won the prizes for student poster and oral presentation, respectively.

The symposium organising committee:
Registration & Program: Miao Liu, Guillaume Bilodeau
Advisor: Kenneth Conn, Sarah Hambleton
Judges for student competition: Jeremy Dettman, Hai Nguyen, Linda Harris
Abstract editor and production: James Tambong
Catering: Émilie Tremblay, Sarah Hambleton, Emily Giroux
Moderator: Wen Chen, Tara Rintoul
Photography: Quinn Eggertson, Satpal Bikhu
Venue Set-up and administrative support: Parivash Shoukouhi, Rafik Assabgui, Robin Richter, Kassandra Bisson, Carmen Hicks, Jacques Pomerleau, Jennifer Thompson, Sarah Hackett

The organising committee thank everyone who volunteered to contribute and help at the symposium.

A) Dr. Michèle Marcotte (Science Director of Ottawa Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada) delivering welcome remarks and highlighting the International Year of Plant Health 2020; B) Invited speakers: Drs. Barry Savile (Trent University, president of Canadian Phytopathological Society) and Myron Smith (Carleton University); C) Ms. Serine Ramlawi (Carleton University), the winner of the poster prize, presenting her poster to the judge committee; D) Ms. Claire Gahagan, the winner of oral presentation prize, and Dr. Jeremy Dettman (chair of judge committee); E) Poster session; F) Sponsors and a display table presented by ThermoFisher; G) Lunch time; H) Group picture of CPSEOR2019 meeting.

— Reported by Miao Liu (CPS Eastern Ontario Region Representative)
Ottawa Research and Development Centre
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

Report on the 2017 CPS-Eastern Ontario Regional Meeting

The Canadian Phytopathological Society’s Eastern Ontario Regional meeting was held on November 17, 2017, at the Ottawa Research and Development Centre (ORDC), Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa, ON. The over 60 participants included research scientists, professors, technicians, and students from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), Carleton University and two companies. The meeting started with welcome remarks delivered by Dr. Michèle Marcotte (ORDC Director, AAFC) followed by a special session entitled “Mycology and microbe-plant interactions – A one and half century endeavour in Canada.” Since one of the scheduled speakers was unable to attend, Dr. Miao Liu stepped in with a historical account of ergotism and the study of ergot fungi. Dr. Gopal Subramaniam gave an overview of plant-microbe interaction studies in the post genomic era. Four contributed talks were given by Emily Giroux (CFIA), Renlin Xu (AAFC), Guillaume Bilodeau (CFIA) and David Overy (AAFC) focusing on the topics of fungal and bacterial genomics, molecular detection, population genetics, and mycotoxin in grains. In total, 12 posters were presented, including one by Frédéric Vachon (under the supervision of Dr. Linda Harris, ORDC/AAFC) which won the student poster competition.

The organizing committee would like to thank the sponsors of the CPS-EOR meeting for their generous support: CPS for supporting regional meetings ($1,000), SeCan ($300) for the student awards, ThermoFisher ($300) and Syngenta ($150) for the coffee breaks, and AAFC for facility support.

Registration: Guillaume Bilodeau, Miao Liu
Advisors: Kenneth Conn, Sarah Hambleton, Keith Seifert,
Judges for student poster competition: Jeremy Dettman (Chair), Hai Nguyen, Miao Liu
Abstract editor & production: James Tambong
Moderators: Wen Chen, Tara Rintoul
Room Setup: Jacques Pomerleau, Parivash Shoukouhi, Rafik Assabgui
Photography: Quinn Eggertson