Invited by Plant Disease Resistance and Functional Genomics Group, IPP, Prof. Harold Corby KISTLER, University of Minnesota, USA, visited IPP on 9-11 May, 2016. He visited several research groups at IPP and discussed mutually interested academic issues with relevant scientists.

During his visit, Prof. KISTLER made a seminar entitled as Cellular compartmentalization of Fusarium mycotoxin synthesis and export. Wheat scab is an important fungal disease. It not only causes yield loss to wheat but also is a major potential risk to food safety due to the mycotoxins produced by the group of fungi. Prof. KISTLER illustrated systematically on the mechanisms of the mycotoxin production. Prof. KISTLER and his team discovered that the synthesis of trichothecene mycotoxins involves a complicated developmental process including dynamics of cell morphology and development of new cell structure. In the course of trichothecenes synthesis, two cytochrome P450 monooxygenases tri4p and tri1p, respectively, play their roles in the first and the last reactions. They co-localized at toxisomes near vesicles. Toxisomes are probably the initiation sites for trichothecenes synthesis. Toxisomes interact with vesicles that contain tri12p, the mycotoxin. It was discovered that several proteins took parts in the function of toxisome after the structural analysis of proteins in toxisomes including tri14p, a newly discovered trichothecenes related protein. The functional study on tri14p revealed that both the pathogenicity and the production of the mycotoxin were significantly reduced in tri14 deletion mutants. This indicates that tri14 gene plays an important role in the pathogenicity and toxin synthesis of Furasium graminearum.

Dr. WANG Lixia, the Deputy Director of the Department of International Cooperation and Graduate Student, hosted the seminar. More than 50 people, including Profs. LIU Wende and LIU Taiguo, Associate Prof. GUO Rongjun, Drs. ZHANG Hao, KONG Ling'an, FAN Jieru, KANG Houxiang, LIU Bo and graduate students and overseas students attended the seminar.

The IPP colleagues and graduates asked questions after Prof. KISTLER's talk. Prof. KISTLER answered the questions one by one and gave detailed explanations. After the seminar, Prof. KISTLER visited laboratories on cereal fungal diseases, crop bacterial diseases, crop nematodes and functional genomics for plant resistance. He discussed mutually interested issues with IPP colleagues. Prof. KISTLER's visit enhanced mutual understanding in scientific research and laid foundation for future collaboration.