Authors: Elsa Ballini (Montpellier SupAgro), Ali Siah (Junia)
On August the 19th and 20th, the scientific community gathered in Lyon for the Satellite Symposium PlantBioRes, held in conjunction with the International Congress of Plant Pathology (ICPP) that took place from August the 21st to the 25th. The aim of PlantBioRes was to deal with induced biological resistance in plants. Immunity and induced resistance in plants against pathogens and their vectors is an environmentally-friendly biological control strategy that promotes plant health and meets today’s needs in terms of sustainable agriculture.
Several presentations on recent advances in products of various origins where made. One session presented recent discoveries concerning cross-protection by viruses against pathogenic micro-organisms. Another session focused on beneficial microbes or, more generally, the impact of the microbiota (fungi, bacteria) on immunity. Another session presented advances in natural substances (bacterial metabolites or extracts, plant metabolites or extracts, biosourced compounds, etc.) and the mechanisms underlying the elicitation and priming of plant defence. The conference was also an opportunity to share tools and other methods for monitoring the immune status of plants. In a final session, the intrinsic and extrinsic factors affecting the efficacy, expression and durability of induced immunity under field conditions were also considered. The symposium ended with a visit to the Château de l’Éclair experimental station, which also provided an opportunity for participants to discover the Beaujolais wines.
The symposium also provided an opportunity to present the concept of agro-ecological immunity, which lies at the heart of the Bestim joint technology network, to the 140 scientists and players present. These scientists from 28 different countries were able to learn about this concept and will take the idea back to their communities for future exchanges. This concept was also included in the general conclusion of the ICCP congress (attended by more than 2,500 scientists), making it even more widely known.
PlantBioRes was an opportunity for researchers, agronomists and manufacturers involved in induced plant resistance, and more generally in the agro-ecological transition of agriculture, to share their knowledge and the challenges ahead in this promising field!
The final symposium programme is available here: https://www.icpp2023.org/sites/default/files/2023-07/BIOLOGICAL%20INDUCED%20RESISTANCE.pdf
