EFS12- Book of abstracts - Contact

WELCOME FROM THE ORGANISING COMMITTEE
More than twenty-five years have passed since the first European Fusarium
Seminar started in 1987 at the initiative of Jerzy CheBkowski at the Warsaw
Agricultural University (Poland). Since then it has been organized every two to
three years in a different country, involving scientists, breeders, stakeholders and
policy makers acting worldwide together to fight again the “cereal killer” Fusarium.
This year, it is the first time France hosts this prestigious seminar, and the city of
Bordeaux is very proud to gather the Fusarium community together in the historic
building of “Le Palais de la Bourse”.
The first description of the disease caused by Fusarium, named then “Fusarium
Head Blight”, was made by G.W. Smith in 1884. Twenty years later, the
experimental reproduction of the disease allowed the discovery of the diversity in
susceptibility of cereals to the pathogen and opened the era of breeding for
resistance to Fusarium. Years of development of modern agriculture and the use
of fungicides allowed the control of Fusarium Head blight. However, when climatic
conditions are unfavorable, there still are episodes of blight epidemics impossible
to contain. In addition, the discovery that Aspergillus species in the early 1960
produced the highly toxic and carcinogenic aflatoxins led to the investigation of
other molds for production of such mycotoxins in crops. It was discovered that
many Fusarium species could produce harmful mycotoxins such as
trichothecenes, zearalenone and fumonisines. To protect their consumers,
developed countries elaborated strict regulations that constrain the trade of
cereals worldwide. This has been the case in Europe since 2007. These
regulations gave tremendous impulse to the research on Fusarium and its allies,
as can be judged by the exponentially increasing number of publications dealing
with Fusarium species and their mycotoxins.
Since the first European Fusarium Meeting in 1987, the research evolved, and a
decade ago, we entered in the era of “omics”. The publication of the genome of
various Fusarium species and the study of their transcriptome, proteome and
metabolome, now allow the considering of the “Systems Biology” of mycotoxin
production. The deciphering of the genomes of different model hosts and cereals
is progressing rapidly today. We are all working with the great hope that
understanding the fungal/plant interactions at the molecular level will allow us to
win the battle. It is this hope that motivates our struggle and brings people not
only from Europe, but also from many countries worldwide to Bordeaux to
exchange their latest findings and ideas during this meeting.
I wish to express here my thanks to all my colleagues who greatly helped me to
make this 12 th European Fusarium Seminar as engaging, informative, and fruitful
as possible. On behalf of the scientific committee, I trust everybody will have a
very successful and exiting seminar. On behalf of the organising committee, we
are glad to welcome you to Bordeaux and hope you will appreciate our charming
historic city.
Christian BARREAU
Chair of EFS12
“Welcome to Bordeaux”
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