SAES-422 Multistate Research Activity Accomplishments Report

Sections

Status: Approved

Basic Information

Participants

Coleman, Jeff (jjcoleman@auburn.edu) – Auburn University; Richards, Jon (JRichards@agcenter.lsu.edu) – Louisiana State University – AgCenter; Drott, Milton (milton.drott@usda.gov) – USDA-ARS Minneapolis MN; Ebert, Malaika (Malaika.ebert@ndsu.edu) – North Dakota State University; Fang, Francis (fang.1212@osu.edu) – The Ohio State University; Friesen, Tim (Timothy.Friesen@ars.usda.gov) – USDA-ARS Red River ND; Harris, Steve (stevenh1@iastate.edu) – Iowa State University; Kabbage, Mehdi (kabbage@wisc.edu) – University of Wisconsin – Madison; Keller, Nancy (npkeller@wisc.edu) – University of Wisconsin, Madison; LeBoldus, Jared (jared.leboldus@science.oregonstate.edu) – Oregon State University; Liu, Zhaohui (zhu.liu@ndsu.edu ) – North Dakota State University; Solanki, Shyam (shyam.solanki@sdstate.edu) – South Dakota State University; Todd, Richard (rbtodd@ksu.edu) - Kansas State University; Wilson, Richard (rwilson10@unl.edu) – University of Nebraska-Lincoln

NCCC-307 Meeting Minutes – March 19, 2026 

7:00-7:15 pm Opening remarks from Steve Harris 

Graduate Student Presentations (25 minutes and 5 minutes for questions)

7:15-7:45 pm   Ben Haefner, Keller Lab, University of Wisconsin - Madison

“Disrupting microbial communities: investigating patulin as a driving force of microbiome community dynamics” 

7:45-8:15 pm   Nisha Rokaya, Wilson Lab, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

“Investigating the role of glutathione degradation by Magnaporthe oryzae during rice blast disease” 

8:15-8:25 pm   Follow up questions and discussion                       

8:25-8:40 pm   Business Meeting

  • Introduction of new and potential new members
    • Francis Feng
    • Medhi Kabbage
    • Jared LeBoldus
  • Update and discussion of comprehensive effector review
  • 2027 annual meeting details
    • Meeting will take place in the fall of 2027
    • One possible location would be at Auburn University and is being further explored

Accomplishments

NCCC307 committee members collectively increased our understanding of biochemistry and genetics of plant-fungal interactions this past year by: 1) increasing our understanding of the fungal effectors and modulation of host plant immune response, 2) better understanding the function of  fungal secondary metabolites and their regulation, 3) understanding the interactions between fungal pathogens and the surrounding microbial community of agriculturally important crops, and 4) increased understanding of plant resistance against fungal pathogens.  These efforts have produced more than ten peer-reviewed journal publications from October 2025 through the April 2026 reporting period. 

Collaborations:

There have been multiple collaborations developed between members of this NCCC 307 multistate project. There is an ongoing collaboration between the Vaillancourt (University of Kentucky) and the Caplan (University of Delaware) laboratories to explore the relative contributions of classical secretion and extracellular vesicle (EV)-mediated secretion for delivery of Colletotrichum pathogenicity factors at the plant–pathogen interface. During the reporting period, genetic constructs and WT fungal strains were exchanged. This collaboration takes advantage of the expertise in EV purification and analysis of the Caplan research group with the strengths in Colletotrichum cytology and molecular biology of the Vaillancourt group.

Another collaboration involving members of the NCCC 307 concerns investigating the interactions between fungal pathogens in the Pyrenophora genus and their cereal hosts. This collaboration between the Friesen (USDA-ARS, Fargo, ND), Liu (North Dakota State University) and Richards (LSU, AgCenter) laboratories has identified virulence factors that confer the ability of these fungi to overcome the plant resistance mechanisms in wheat and barley.

Impacts

  1. The publications by NCCC307 members describing their research findings have increased understanding of how plant-fungi interactions impact economically important diseases of crops and food production and threats to humans and animals through the consumption of mycotoxin contaminated foods. The exchange of ideas and biochemical and genetic data among members has contributed to these publications and fostered new ideas and research directions. NCCC307 members have coauthored two papers together since the last report (see Publications section).
  2. Several ongoing collaborations between members of this multistate project have advanced the understanding of the interactions between phytopathogenic fungi and their host plants (see ‘Collaborations’ section in Accomplishments).
  3. Members of the NCCC307 have contributed to work force development where at least 11 undergraduate students, 14 graduate students, and five postdoctoral scientists have been trained during this reporting period. Our group encourages students and postdoctoral scientists to take an active role in this multistate NCCC307, and both of the presentations from this past annual meeting were from graduate students.
  4. Members have participated in community outreach projects to educate the public concerning fungi and mushroom identification.
  5. The research generated from members of this NCCC307 multistate project is of use to plant pathologists, plant breeders, and other scientists involved in the development of control strategies aimed at reducing crop diseases and mycotoxin contamination problems caused by fungi. The research will also benefit academic, government, and private-sector organizations that assess the risks that fungi pose to human and animal health.

Grants, Contracts & Other Resources Obtained

None.

Publications

  1. Ahmad M, Gonzalez-Hernandez JL, Solanki S, Glover KD, Ameen G. (2026) First report of Xanthomonas prunicola causing leaf streak disease on wheat (Triticum aestivum) in the United States. Plant Disease, PDIS-06.
  2. Bahri BA, Wilson RA, Ali J. (2025) Editorial: Advancing understanding of blast disease: pathogen genomics and host-pathogen interactions. Frontiers in Plant Science 16: 1754950. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1754950
  3. Brand A, Rutter B, Herrera M, Perez-Ortiz G, Greco C, Ashley B, Deng H, Hay A, Bedford C, Wenzel M, Mondo S, Konkel Z, Slot J, Farrer R, Campopiano D (2025) Evolution, structure and function of the biosynthetic gene cluster of myriocin, a potent inhibitory sphingolipid. Research Square https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6881806/v1
  4. Dias HM, Jain R, Santos VA, Gonzalez-Hernandez JL, Solanki S, Menendez III HM, Graham C (2026) Reproducible emu-based workflow for high-fidelity soil and plant microbiome profiling on HPC clusters. Bio-protocol 16(2).
  5. Dias HM, Solanki S, Gonzalez‐Hernandez JL, Mural RV, Yurgel SN, Graham C. (2025) Influence of plant genotype on nodule‐associated bacterial community composition and function in seasonal field pea varieties. Legume Science 7: e70069.
  6. Iqbal MZ, Burks T, Yadav PK, Obellaneni SAC, Rasool I, Olivera IP, Aggarwal R, Chang Y, Nafchi AM, Solanki S, Karki D, Frederick Q, Qin J, Kim M. (2025) Hyperspectral imaging and machine learning for soybean SDS severity classification. Sensing for Agriculture and Food Quality and Safety XVII 13484, 49–65.
  7. Parajuli A, Coleman JJ (2026) Genome resource of representative isolates of Fusarium solani and Fusarium falciforme pathogenic on soybean. PhytoFrontiers 6: 346-349.
  8. Sondreli KL, Rush TA, Drott MT, McTaggart A, Alexander W, Sawyer C, Chhetri HB, Hyatt D, Brueggeman R, Richards JK, Friesen TL, Jacobson D, Abraham PE, Tannous J, LeBoldus JM. (2026) Transcriptomic and functional analyses uncover a conserved effector driving genotype-dependent virulence in the Sphaerulina musiva-Populus trichocarpa  mBio e03120-25. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1128/mbio.03120-25
  9. Xavier KV, Farman M, Silva FR, Cordova LG, Mizubuti ESG, Nuckles E, Gaffor I, Chopra S, Vaillancourt L (2026) Three host-associated subpopulations of Colletotrichum sublineola cause anthracnose of Sorghum halepense and bicolor in the southeastern United States. Plant Disease https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-07-25-1412-RE
  10. Xie H, Hu J, Zhao X, Jianwei Chen J, Xiaofeng Yue X, Zhou C, Navarro-Muñoz JC Jun Jiang J, Tang X,Zhao F, Hatmaker EA, Barber AE, Rokas A, Drott MT, Keller NP, Zhang Q, van der Hooft JJJ, Medema MH, Li P. (2026) Large-scale multi-omics profiling reveals environmental and evolutionary drivers of fungal phylogeographic and metabolic diversity. Nature Communications doi: 10.1038/s41467-026-70721-8.
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