The international EAPR Pathology and Pests Section Meeting took place at Neuchâtel in Switzerland from September 1st till September 4th with the main topic Reducing pesticide use while preserving potato productivity and profitability.
The program of the Symposium was divided into 4 sections each focusing on a specific taxonomic group of pests and pathogens: Vector-borne diseases, Oomycetes, Tuber blemishes, Blackleg and bacterial wilt; and a general starting section of Epidemiology and management.
My active contribution to the Symposium was a poster presentation at the poster session (September 3rd) titled Late blight resistance and expression of Rpi-Smira2/R8 gene in R8 potato differential plants. During the poster session, I presented the research topic of my Ph.D. thesis and some background of the discussed topic. I shared some of the methods used in my research and their optimization process, where I discussed with some other researchers regarding their experience with mentioned methods and pathogen infection. Afterward, I also presented some future work of my Ph.D. topic and some plans for the topic of potato – late blight interaction at our institute.
Overall I was pleased and delighted to meet so many internationally renowned scientists and researchers working with potato pathogens and to share some of my experience and knowledge in potato research which was also reciprocal as I have acquired much useful information that will aid my future work in this topic.
In the end, I would like to thank again the EAPR Organizing Committee for rewarding me with the Student Financial Support and thus enabling me to attend this splendidly organized Symposium. I hope to attend any future meetings and possibly participate in new collaborations and together improve our knowledge in potato research.
