Plant Health and Protection

Transcription

1 Plant Health and Protection National Collections of Arachnids, Fungi, Insects and Nematodes

2 The ARC The Agricultural Research Council (ARC) is a statutory body and a schedule 3A public entity Agricultural Research Act 86 of 1990, Amendment Act 27 of 2001; other relevant South African Legislation. DAFF 11 Institutes country wide Various collections at crops- and animal sciences (OVI, seedbank of forage plants) & Research and Biotechnology Innovations. ARC-PHP: custodians of National Reference Collections, microbial collections and biobanks

3 Biosystematics Programme: Food security, ecosystem services and protection of natural resources Pest and disease outbreaks - international trade in agricultural products Emerging diseases - climate change and evolutionary processes Support government to maintain commitments on National Acts and International Conventions Specimen collections Technology transfer: diagnostic and advisory services, courses, guide books, catalogues, pamphlets and courses Dissemination of scientific data Scientific output: Contributed to soil diversity review (termites; fungi; nematodes; spiders and mites). Currently contributions to follow up review in progress

4 Arachnology

5 Arachnology Mites: Plant feeding mites Predatory mites Parasitic mites ca 4400 microscope slides containing more than specimens Spiders: Various groups of spiders Scorpions Pseudoscorpions Spider collection: >80,900 alcohol samples containing >242,700 specimens

6 Entomology

7 Entomology Specimen holdings - beetles, scale insects, thrips, bees & wasps, termites, aphids and leaf hoppers pinned specimens vials of alcohol preserved specimens; slide mounted specimens Collections contain several thousand species in hundreds of families

8 Mycology

9 Mycology Collections Dried herbarium collection PREM Live culture collection PPRI Dried herbarium collection (PREM): specimens, including 2943 type specimens. The holdings represent more than fungal species Live culture collection (PPRI): cultures, including important plant pathogenic fungi. DNA Biobank Identification service that contribute strains to the collection

10 Nematology

11 Nematology Plant parasitic nematodes Slide-mounted Collection Wet Collection of Insect Parasitic Nematodes More than

12 Research: Mites Survey and description of eriophyoid mite diversity on indigenous South African plants including (ilala palm, Searsia, Widdringtonia, Fauria and Apodytes spp). So far about 9 new species belonging to about 7 new genera found Eriophyoid mites on mango, vine, potato, sweet potato and blueberries. Catalogue of the Eriophyoidea (Acari) of South Africa. Survey and study of eriophyoid mites on tea in South Africa Taxonomy and re-description of mites species used for biological control of Australian weeds.

13 Research: Insects Taxonomic revision of African bees genera (2 outstanding). Vectors of viruses on banana Genetic diversity of the Fall Armyworm in South Africa Leaf hoppers of grasslands-1 new genus; 15 new spp. New pest reports such as indigenous longhorn beetle Catalogues of bee / beetle taxa in South Africa Global review of the invader Harlequin beetle (one of the most influential papers in the category Environmental Biology)

14 Research: Fungi Barcoding of Penicillium and Aspergillus barcoding (5 new species) Macadamia and Avocado phytopathogens Fusarium biome survey grasslands and Karoo BioGap; Australian collaborator Fungal soil diversity various Universities, ARC and Chinese collaborator Diversity of macro-fungi in the Limpopo region Developing of rapid detection techniques for Alternaria Pathogenicity testing of newly described native Fusarium spp. Genome mining of novel South African Fusarium sp. Characterization of a fungal biocontrol agent

15 Research collaboration SANBI Universities: UL, UJ, UP, US, UFS, Venda, KZN, UNW, UNISA Various national and internationally based collections: Western Australia Museum, Guelph University, Canada, Lincoln University, University of Bari, Italy, University of St. Petersburg, Russia, USDA, Kunming Institute of Botany, Westerdijk Fungal Diversity Institute, Sydney Botanic Garden and Domain Trust, Food and Environment Research Agency, UK E Oppenheimer and Son SAIAB

16 Challenges Rapid loss of skills due to retirements Recruitment of specialists: head-hunting failed Decreased government funding Slow uptake of molecular technologies (in some disciplines) Implementation of changing government policies Limited buy-in from the local scientific community Maintenance of existing infrastructure

17 Staff Unit PhD MSc Graduates Technicians Students Fungi (2xPhD, 2xMSc, 2x M.Tech, 1 B Hons, 1x N.Dip, 2x NRF Interns Insects x PhD Mites xMSc Nematology xPhD Spiders (1xMSc, 1x BSc Hons & 1x N.Dip

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