2004 Bacteriology Committee Meeting Minutes
Anaheim, CA
July 31, 2004
Immediate Past Chair: Gwyn A. Beattie (gbeattie@iastate.edu)
Current Committee Chair: Sheng Yang He (hes@msu.edu)
Current Vice-Chair: Don Kobayashi (kobayashi@aesop.rutgers.edu)
Current Members: Shien Lu, Johan Kers, Yan Zhao, Jeri Barak, Rosemary Loria, Ing-Ming Lee, Marion Brodhagen, Jeff Jones, Karyn Newman, Susanne Von Bodman, Adam Bogdanove, Amy Charkowski, Wesley Chun, Clay Fuqua, Lisa Keith, John Norelli, Norman Schaad, George Sundin
Attendees (based on the sign-in sheet): Anne Alvarez, Gwyn Beattie, Carolee Bull, Tim Denny, Sheng Yang He, Frank Louws, Joseph Reddy, Norm Schaad, John Norelli, George Sundin, Amarjyoti Sandhu, Shein Lu, Kayimbi M. Tubajika, Yan Zhao, Madhumita Joshi, Evan Johnson, SeongHwan Kim, Jeff Jones, Carolee Bull, C.J. Chang, Rosemary Loria, Ing-Ming Lee, Anne Alvarez, Susanne Von Bodman, Brenda Scholz-Schroeder
Members rotating off: Clay Fuqua, Ing-Ming Lee
Chair: Gwyn A. Beattie Presiding
Call to Order: 8:30 p.m.
I. Chair’s Report (Gwyn Beattie)
1. Membership updates and chair and vice-chair changes (recent history of membership)
Normally, we add about six members per year, since we can have 18 members on the committee. Because of lack of submission of names in 2003, we had only six active members of the committee at the end of the APS meeting in 2003. Thanks to those five members with terms 2003-2005, who started their membership on the committee retroactive to August 2003, and thus will provide the committee with some continuity, as well as the seven new members that begin at the end of the committee meeting in 2004.
Current Bacteriology Committee Membership:
Gwyn Beattie (Chair) and Sheng Yang He (Vice-Chair)
Committee Members (2001-2004): John Hartung, Carolee Bull, Brenda Scholz-Schroeder (rotating off after APS meeting)
Committee Members (2002-2005): Clay Fuqua, Ing-Ming Lee
Committee Members (2003-2006): Marion Brodhagen, Jeff Jones, Don Kobayashi, Karyn Newman,
Susanne von Bodman
Future Committee Members (2004-2007): Adam Bogdanove, Amy Charkowski, Wes Chun, Lisa Keith,
Jay Norelli, Norm Schaad, George Sundin (begin appointment after 2004 APS meeting)
Gwyn welcomed the participation of graduate students and post-docs.
2. Sponsored sessions at 2004 APS meeting
A. Methods in Functional Genomics
Time: Saturday 8-5
Sponsoring Committees: Bacteriology Committee
Co-moderators: Tim Denny and Susanne von Bodman
Supporting Funds: From Agilent Technologies and Affymetrix
Speakers: Microarray: Sean Coughlan (Agilent Technologies), Laura Ramsundar (Affymetrix), Jeremy Glasner (AHABS/Genetics); Proteomics: Karin Sauer (State University of NY at Binghamton), Joseph Loo (UCLA), Barry Bochner (Biolog, Inc)
B. Functional Genomics Meets Bacterial Diseases
Time: Monday 8-12
Sponsoring Committees: Bacteriology and Genetics Committees
Co-moderators: Sheng Yang He and Gwyn Beattie
Supporting Funds: $1,500 from APS
Speakers: Pseudomonas syringae: Steve Lindow, Alan Collmer, Carol Bender (Oklahoma State); Ralstonia solanacearum: Chris Hayward (University of Brisbane, Australia, Stephane Genin (Christian Boucher’s lab), Tim Denny
C. Plant Pathology in Historical Perspective
Time: Monday 8-12
Sponsoring Committees: Bacteriology Committee and Scientific Programs Board
Co-moderators: Christina Matta (UW-Madison) and Paul Peterson (Clemson)
Speakers: Historians
D. Lifestyles and Genomics of Fastidious and Gram-Positive Bacteria
Time: Monday 1-5
Sponsoring Committees: Bacteriology Committee
Co-moderators: Saskia Hogenhout and Carol Ishimarou
Supporting Funds: $2,000 from APS and $1,500 from the APHIS Ad Hoc Committee for the Listing of Prevalent Phytopathogenic Bacteria in the US
Speakers: M. Caparon (Washington Univ), Rosemary Loira (Cornell), R. Davis (ARS), Saskia Hogenhout (Ohio), R. Echlaub (Germnay), Carol Ishimaru (CSU), David Fracis (Ohio)
3. Next year’s APS theme and location
Location: Austin, TX
Theme: Looking to the future
II. Current Business
1. Approval of the minutes of the 2003 committee meeting
Approval of the minutes from last year was moved (Von Bodman), seconded (Scholz-Schroeder), and unanimously approved.
2. Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on Genomics – Joyce Loper
Ad Hoc Committee: Joyce Loper (Chair), Linda Thomashow, Robert Davis, Cal Kado, Susanne von Bodman, Saskia Hogenhout, Gwyn Beattie, Don Kobayashi
Goal: To produce priority lists of bacteria for genome sequencing. These lists serve as a mechanism to indicate a general consensus of opinion on the bacterial pathogens and biocontrol agents that should be of most importance to sequence.
Report: The committee has produced two lists: immediate priority list and high priority list. The two lists need to be updated every year. These lists from the Bacteriology and other committees all go to Scot Gold, who coordinates the compilation of a combined list for the APS. The most recent update of the APS list was March 22, 2004. There were, however, some discrepancies between the finalized list and the list put on-line.
The Bacteriology Committee can nominate 25 genomes in the high priority category. At present, the number is lower than 25. So more genomes can be nominated.
Change of status was noted for the following bacteria:
Ralstonia solanacearum race 3 (Dean Gabriel) has been approved for sequencing.
Genome sequencing of Xylella fastidiosa almond strain is complete.
Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzicola (Adam Bogdanove) has been approved for sequencing.
3. Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on Evaluating R. solanacearum race 3 as a Select Agent – Gwyn Beattie
Ad Hoc Committee: Caitilyn Allen (Chair), Anne Alvarez, Tim Denny, Arthur Kelman, and Jeff Jones
Goal: To address the appropriateness of listing this organism on the select agent list.
Report: Letter from Caitlyn is attached (note from SYH: this letter will be provided during the 2005 committee meeting). Several attendees strongly concurred with Caitilyn that this bacterium should be removed from the list, based on scientific evidence. It was felt that criteria used to classify this bacterium as a select agent did not seem to apply to other bacteria (e.g., X. oryzicola pv. oryzicola).
4. Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on Bacterial Taxonomy – Carolee Bull
Ad Hoc Committee: Carolee Bull (Chair), members?
Goal: To develop an interactive website on phytobacteriology taxonomy.
Report: Carolee checks literature periodically for any new plant pathogenic bacteria. She asked others to alert her if there is a new pathogen reported. The International Society for Plant Pathology Committee on Taxonomy of Plant Pathogenic Bacteria updates the list of plant pathogenic bacteria periodically.
5. Report on current APS Press publications related to bacteriology – Anne Alvarez
Report: APS Press has 27 publications in the pipeline. Seven are of interest to this group. Anne, Milt Schroth and Eva Hecht-Poinar are making a compendium of images of bacterial diseases for distribution as a CD ROM. This project has been accepted by APS Press, with a target completion date of December 2005. This project will culminate in a searchable CD that has two portions. First, an interactive portion will have ten model diseases with detailed etiology (from initial to final stages). Second, an image collection with accompanying captions will cover a wide range of bacterial diseases on a diversity of hosts. She asks others to send her disease symptom images. Other projects mentioned include: a textbook on Bacteriology by C. Kado, a new edition of the “Detection of bacteria in seeds” by Ron Gitaitis, Ron Wolcott and Wes Chun, a new edition of Bradbury’s Guide to Plant Pathogenic Bacteria, and others.
6. Discussion of draft document from the Ad Hoc Committee on Plant Pathology Priorities – Joyce Loper
This committee, consisting of 11 members, is working on a document that summarizes the major accomplishments and future priorities of plant pathology research. This document is complementary to the current CSREES effort to identify NRI-sponsored research accomplishments, gaps, and future opportunities. Joyce asked this committee to review sections related to bacteriology and send any comments to her directly. There was a brief discussion.
7. Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Listing of Prevalent Phytopathogenic Bacteria in the US – Norm Schaad
Ad Hoc Committee: Norm Schaad (Chair), Frank Louws, Anne Alvarez, Arun Chatterjee, Ed Civerolo, Anne Vidaver, Jeff Jones, Tom Burr, George Sundin, Carol Ishimaru, Wes Chun
Goal: To provide a reference tool for APHIS in their regulation of importation and exportation of research isolates of microorganisms between researchers. The intent is to expedite the APHIS permit process and not for developing quarantine regulations for commodities.
Report: These lists have been worked on for five years, with financial support from the APHIS. We have produced bacterial lists for many states. Mike Firko and Charles Divan are the APHIS contacts involved in this project. Final lists require approval by the Congress, in accordance with the Plant Protection Act. Hopefully within the next year, common organisms can be moved from state to state without a permit.
8. Discussion of potential uses for APHIS funds to support phytobacteriology efforts
Items to discuss: What to do with the remaining funds provided to the committee (approx. $7,000).
Three uses were suggested: 1) to sponsor scientific sessions for non-APS member speakers; 2) to support publications related to bacteriology. There was strong support for Anne Alvarez’s CD-ROM project ($4,000 was recommended); 3) to support student travel to APS meetings.
9. Need for a National Plant Pathogenic Bacteria Repository – Carolee Bull
Current Status: Carolee was approached in 2000 by the ISPP committee on taxonomy of bacterial pathogens to see what could be done to establish a phytobacterial culture collection in the U.S. She has collected some information about the state of important phytobacterial strain collections from retired phytobacteriologists. At present, ARS is working on this for all microbial resources. Should we establish an Ad Hoc Committee to work with ARS and work creatively to get at least a phytobacteriology collection published? Is there someone willing to chair such a committee?
Discussion: There is a need to save phytobacterial strains, as valuable strains are being lost. ATCC does not have phytobacteriology specialists. Norm Schaad is maintaining the International Collection of Phytopathogenic Bacteria (ICPB) (Starr's Collection). Requests for strains should be possible by Jan 06. Carolee Bull, Anne Alvarez, and Norm Schaad are interested in form a committee, but there was no volunteer for chairing this committee.
III. New Business
1. Nomination/election of new officers for 2004—2005
Don Kobayashi was nominated as Vice Chair. The nomination was approved unanimously by the attendees. Several new committee members were nominated: Yan Zhao, Johan Kers, Shien Lu, Jeri Barak, Rosemary Loria.
2. Identify topics for upcoming APS Special Sessions
The following two symposia were recommended:
A. Functional Genomics and Comparative Pathobiology of the Erwinias (organizers: Amy Charkowski and Brenda K. Scholz-Schroeder). There were 22 votes for this symposium. (Post-meeting note: this symposium was approved by the APS Program Committee.)
B. Cross domain bacterial pathogens (organizers: Jeri Barak/Norman Schaad). There were 15 votes for this symposium. (Post-meeting note: this symposium was not approved by the APS Program Committee.)
The attendees also agreed that the Bacteriology Committee should co-sponsor the following symposia:
Meeting adjourned at 10 pm.
Submitted by Sheng Yang He