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Volume 3 Issue 3, March 2022
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The Director’s Corner
Carrie Harmon
Dear NPDN friends,
As I write this month’s note to you, it is drizzling and washing the oak pollen off, well, everything. Spring comes a bit earlier here in Florida, but by the time you read this, bits of spring will have found many of you. Most of us will be seeing our samples increase as the seasons shift, with the NPDN national meeting marking the start of the busy season. I cannot adequately express how very excited I am to see you in person next month! There is no other meeting quite like ours, which should be no surprise, because there is really no organization quite like ours. I have often remarked on how generous and sharing diagnosticians are. Built into Extension, this is a profession dedicated to applying science and work wherever there is need. I look forward to hearing of all your successes and thanking all of you in person!
Be well,
Carrie
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Register for the 2022 NPDN National Meeting
Visit the meeting webpage for details about the program, workshops, field trips, and to register.
Important Dates to Remember
- Hotel blocks close April 2, 2022
- Last day to register for workshops and field trips April 15, 2022
- Last day to register online April 20, 2022
Request for Photos of Abiotic Problems
Melodie Putnam and Raj Singh are soliciting images of abiotic problems for use in a session at the NPDN national meeting. They need images and information by March 30. More details are available online.
Workshops and Field Trips
Workshops and Field Trips will be offered on Friday, April 29, and Saturday, April 30, at various locations. Click here for details.
COVID-19 Information
We are still planning to hold the 2022 NPDN national meeting in person. A webpage created to communicate updates on COVID guidelines for the meeting, and containing links to guidelines for UC-Davis and Yolo county, can be found online at https://www.npdn.org/2022_national_meeting/covid-updates
Hotel-specific COVID information (food availability, masking policies, housekeeping services, etc.) can be found on the hotel’s webpage or by contacting the hotel directly.
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New NPDN Data Upload Guideline
How to Enter an Unidentified Pest Diagnosis
The National Data Committee’s (NDC) role is to support the quality and consistency of the data in the NPDN National Data Repository by revising the dictionaries, providing clear data entry guidelines, and standard terminology.
To that end, the committee regularly reviews pest and host codes to ensure that the taxonomic nomenclature in the National Data Repository (NDR) stays up to date. Recently, the committee also started reviewing non-taxonomic codes in the pest and host dictionaries in order to write some necessary guidelines for their use.
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Oak Wilt Story Map
Modified from an announcement by Susan Ellsworth, Director for Forest Health and Forest Markets, USDA Forest Service, State and Private Forestry, Eastern Region
The USDA Forest Service recently completed a story map entitled “Oak Wilt in the Northeastern and Midwestern States”. Oak wilt, which kills hundreds of thousands of oaks in the U.S. each year, is complex, with a high degree of variability in distribution, severity, and associated management options. This story map provides a detailed overview of oak wilt and is intended to help natural resource managers in the Northeast and Midwest choose the most appropriate tools for a given situation.
For easy navigation and exploration, the story map organizes information into selectable tabs, including background and biology, distribution and severity, detection and surveillance, factors affecting disease severity, management approaches and tools, and scenarios.
If you have questions or would like more information, please contact St. Paul Field Office Plant Pathologist Linda Haugen (linda.haugen@usda.gov).
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2022 IT/Diagnostician Meeting Highlights
Stephanie Shea, Interim Associate Director NEPDN
Another year means another NPDN IT/Diagnostician meeting to discuss developments during this past year to enhance the smooth functionality and cohesiveness of our network. The January 26–27 meeting was held virtually for the second year in a row and served as a review and update of IT developments in our network, while also providing an opportunity for NPDN members to give feedback to the IT crew and partake in discussions on relevant IT-related topics.
A summary detailing the presentations given and the topics discussed each day of the 2022 NPDN IT/Diagnostician meeting is presented below.
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Retirements
Mary Ann Hansen – SPDN
Mary Ann Hansen, diagnostician and instructor at Virginia Tech, retired in March 2022 after 37 years in the VT Plant Disease Clinic. In addition to her responsibilities in the clinic, she taught or co-taught courses in plant diagnostics, tree pathology, plant domestication, and general biology, and she participated in diagnostics projects in Central America and Africa. During her almost four decades in the Plant Disease Clinic, Mary Ann witnessed a sea change in the way plant diagnostics is conducted. When she started her job in 1984, she relied on phone calls and meetings to communicate with other diagnosticians about puzzling plant problems. Diagnostic reports were handwritten on carbon copy forms; talks were presented from Kodak slides mounted in slide carousels, and newsletters were mailed as hardcopies—at a time when the word “hardcopy” had only recently been invented! Some of the diagnostic techniques used routinely today had either not been invented or were not in common use (think, ELISA, PCR). Mary Ann has enjoyed being a part of the evolution in diagnostics and feels lucky to have served a large part of her career during a time when the NPDN has been in existence, providing opportunities for training, communicating with colleagues, and improving the way diagnostics is done. She will miss doing diagnostics on a daily basis, but she plans to spend her first full summer off in 37 years bicycling in Europe with her husband, taking pictures of diseased plants along the way!
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Peer Review Digest for Diagnosticians
Contact Sara May (srm183@psu.edu) and Lina Rodriguez Salamanca (lina@iastate.edu) for suggestions to include.
Pathogens
Six de novo assemblies from pathogenic and nonpathogenic strains of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. niveum https://doi.org/10.1094/PHYTOFR-04-21-0031-SC
Characterizations of an emerging disease: Apple blotch caused by Diplocarpon coronariae (syn. Marssonina coronaria) in the Mid-Atlantic United States https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-11-21-2557-RE
Methods and Protocols
Assessment of a generic method for the detection of begomoviruses (BegomoVal) https://zenodo.org/record/5909640#.YhzxIJZMGUn
qPCR assays for sensitive and rapid detection of Quambalaria species from plant tissues https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-04-21-0816-RE
Notable First Reports
Herbaceous Ornamentals
First report of southern blight, caused by Athelia rolfsii (syn. Sclerotium rolfsii) on hellebores in North America https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-09-21-2004-PDN
First report of Stagonosporopsis heliopsidis causing a leaf spot on whorled sunflower, Helianthus verticillatus, in the United States https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-11-21-2568-PDN
First report of Macrophomina phaseolina causing charcoal root rot of hebe (Veronica cupressoides, V. ochracea, and V. pinguifolia) in Oregon, U.S.A. https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-09-21-2036-PDN
Woody Ornamentals
First report of the NA2 clonal lineage of the sudden oak death pathogen, Phytophthora ramorum, infecting tanoak in Oregon forests https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-10-21-2152-PDN
First report of dieback caused by Phytophthora ramorum on golden chinquapin, Chrysolepis chrysophylla, in California https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-09-21-2044-PDN
First report of laurel wilt disease caused by Raffaelea lauricola on sassafras in Virginia https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-11-21-2616-PDN
First report of Phytophthora parsiana causing crown and root rot on guayule in the United States https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-10-21-2239-PDN
Smilax auriculata: A new host for Orchid fleck dichorhavirus identified in Florida, USA https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-09-21-2085-PDN
Vegetables and Herbs
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The Plant Puzzler
The answer to February’s Plant Puzzler is lightning damage.
Tim Boyle, plant pest and disease specialist with the Department of Agriculture and Resource Management, Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, was selected as the winner from our correct entries.
The Puzzler team enjoyed reading Tim’s answer (printed below), which illustrates the diversity of experience and knowledge that can inform the diagnostic process.
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Announcements
New Contact for the APHIS Field Operations Lab
Bliss Betzen is the new director of the APHIS Field Operations Lab serving NPDN labs running Phytophthora ramorum samples (inconclusives from previously positive sites should be sent to this lab). Bliss replaces Craig Webb who is now a multistate SPHD. Find Bliss’ contact information and read the full announcement online.
New Address for APHIS PPCDL in Maryland
The address for the APHIS Plant Pathology Confirmatory Diagnostics Lab (PPCDL), formerly the “Beltsville Lab,” has changed. Inconclusive or positive Phytophthora ramorum samples from sites not previously positive (PASS) and any other high-impact or regulatory samples should be sent the PPCDL following SPRO notification.
USDA-APHIS-PPQ-S&T PPCDL
ATTN: Vessela Mavrodieva or Nicole O’Donahue
Sample Diagnostics BARC-East, Bldg. 580
9901 Powder Mill Road
Laurel, MD 20708
Phone: (301) 313-9208 or (301) 313-9271
When forwarding materials email notification to the lab.
APHIS-PPQCPHSTBeltsvilleSampleDiagnostics@usda.gov
Beltsville Workshops
Workshops will be held February 22 through March 30, 2022. The revised schedule and course descriptions are available on the Beltsville Workshops webpage.
Request for Photos of Abiotic Problems
Melodie Putnam and Raj Singh are soliciting images of abiotic problems for use in a session at the NPDN national meeting. They need images and information by March 30. More details are available online at https://www.npdn.org/wanted-your-best-photos-abiotic-problems
The GPDN webinar series will be hosted via Zoom on Wednesdays from February 3 through March 23, 2022. Details on the series and instructions on how to register are available on the 2022 GPDN Webinar Series webpage
The series will feature speakers from universities and government agencies across the country. Topics include invasive pests, modeling, and updates on some diseases. These topics are relevant to pest management specialists and diagnosticians in plant pathology, entomology, and weed science.
 
Guest editors Kitty Cardwell, Carrie Harmon, Poonam Sharma, and James Stack are calling for papers for the PhytoFrontiersTM Focus Issue: Diagnostic Assay Development and Validation: The Science of Getting it Right.
This Focus issue intends to enhance the quality of diagnostic assays and to increase the confidence in their use for the protection of U.S. agricultural, horticultural, and natural landscapes. Details can be found online.
The submission deadline is March 30, 2022. Authors are encouraged to read the Information for Authors before submitting.
PhytoFrontiers is an open access journal with publication fees and a discount for APS members.
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Employment Opportunities
Job announcements can be posted and viewed online at https://www.npdn.org/public/job-board
Lab Technician
The University of New Hampshire Plant Diagnostic Lab seeks an hourly lab technician to assist with plant disease diagnosis. Find full job description and apply at https://jobs.usnh.edu/postings/46171
Postdoctoral Researcher at UC Davis
The greenhouse and nursery pathology lab at UC Davis focuses on research (ornamentals and vegetable transplants). We are seeking qualified applicants to work on our two lines of research: 1. develop molecular based tools for an improved diagnostics of Phytophthora pathogens from ornamental crops 2. evaluate innovative disease management tools for vegetable transplant production, based on a system-based approach: Prevention (greenhouse sanitation) and plant protection (biological/synthetic plant treatments). Read full announcement at https://www.npdn.org/public/jobs/postdoctoral-researcher-uc-davis Application deadline March 25, 2022
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Submissions and Subscriptions
The deadline for publication is the last day of the preceding month. Submission and subscription details can be found here.
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