St. Paul, Minn. (September 2016)--In an effort to promote research and understanding of an emerging scientific discipline, The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation awarded the first-ever Phytobiomes Poster Prize at The American Phytopathological Society’s 2016 Annual Meeting.
The goal of the award: encourage students to think about their research in terms of the phytobiome, a newly coined scientific term that refers to the entire collection of systems affecting a plant. These can include the soil, other plants, diseases, insects, animals, microbes, the weather, and more.
The awardees were announced by Dr. Carolyn Young, researcher at the Noble Foundation and Editor-in-Chief of Phytobiomes, a new open-access, peer-reviewed, and multidisciplinary journal covering original phytobiome research.
“Phytobiomes is a rapidly expanding area within the research community but remains fairly unknown to those outside the field,” Young said. “These posters show excellent examples of the quality of research being conducted in the phytobiome community. They help spur people to think about what their plant pathology research could mean in a broader context.”
In total, $1,000 was awarded by the Noble Foundation to four students and two postdocs for authoring the following research presented during the APS Annual Meeting’s poster sessions:
- Zachary Noel, Michigan State University: “Mining of abiotic and biotic factors for prediction of soybean sudden death syndrome (SDS) symptoms”
- Nichole Ginnan, University of California, Riverside: “The role of citrus microbiome in tree health and tolerance to pathogens”
- Terea Stetina, University of Arkansas: “The virome of Rhizoctonia solani and its effect on fungal pathogenicity”
- Alsayed Mashaheet, North Carolina State University: “Screening some rust universal-susceptible wheat varieties for ozone tolerance and some applications”
- Ali Srour, Southern Illinois University: “Linking microbial taxa in SDS-suppressive soils from soybean fields”
- Tania Quesada, University of Florida: “Discovery of biological drivers of pitch canker disease in a changing climate”
In addition to rewarding students and postdocs for high-quality work in the new field of phytobiomes, the award was another way to get people thinking about the new Phytobiomes journal.
“Just like the transdisciplinary journal Phytobiomes, the posters were all awarded from different sections of the poster categories,” Young said. “Senior editors attending the meeting were helpful with the judging, especially (Associate Editor-in-Chief) Linda Kinkel, who carefully examined every student poster on the list.”
The study of phytobiomes is quickly turning into a movement in the science community, bringing together researchers in plant pathology, microbiology, ecology, climatology, virology, agronomy, entomology, computational biology, nematology, and many other fields.
Through coordinated efforts, scientists hope to gain a systems-level understanding of phytobiomes, which will ultimately enable the world to sustainably and profitably produce sufficient crops to meet global demand with minimal negative impact on the environment.
Phytobiomes, the first and only journal covering this exciting new field, is positioned to become the primary resource for publishing fundamental and translational research of the phytobiomes community.
Researchers interested in submitting manuscripts should visit phytobiomesjournal.org to learn about Phytobiomes’ scope, intended readership, manuscript types, author instructions, and more. Article processing charges for the first 45 research papers accepted for publication will be discounted by more than 50% to $1,350 each.
To learn more about the phytobiomes movement, which includes information about the Phytobiomes Roadmap and Phytobiomes Alliance, visit phytobiomes.org.
