Welcome to the website of the TriLat Initiative on Stable Rice Supply in sub-Saharan Africa!

On June 15 and 16, the IRD Center in Montpellier was hosting the First TriLat Meeting on Stable Rice Supply in sub-Saharan Africa, supported by a grant from the Agence Inter-établissements de Recherche pour le Développement (AIRD), France, and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Germany.

This trilateral initiative is coordinated by Dr Ralf KOEBNIK, (IRD Montpellier, UMR 186 "Résistance des Plantes aux Bioagresseurs" (France), Dr Jens BOCH, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg (Germany), and Dr Léonard S. OUÉDRAOGO, INERA Bobo-Dioulasso (Burkina Faso).

First TriLat Meeting on Stable Rice Supply, IRD Center Montpellier, France, June 15-16, 2011

This was the first time that 16 scientists and university professors from six countries (France, Germany, Burkina Faso, Benin, Mali and Togo) met to discuss opportunities of collaboration and to develop a joint project to fight the most devastating bacterial diseases of rice which are caused by strains of Xanthomonas oryzae. Dr Jens Boch and colleagues did a break-through discovery to understand bacterial pathogenicity at the molecular level. The application of this discovery has been licensed by the Two Blades Foundation and life technologies^TM (Press Release from June 10, 2011) and will be used in the frame of this initiative.

The aim of the trilateral project is to establish a survey for Xanthomonas diseases on rice in West-Africa and to apply novel strategies to combat these diseases, thus supporting an increased rice production for these African countries.

The two-days meeting covered several topics, such as rice cultivation and bacterial diseases in sub-Saharan Africa, sampling and typing of Xanthomonas strains, genetic/omics resources and resistance genes of rice, the impact of key virulence factors of X. oryzae and their potential as guides for the development of novel resistances. The meeting also gave room to exchange views on the acceptance and applicability of GMOs, to discuss questions of intellectual property and to evaluate possibilities for capacity building in the sub-Saharan region.

This very stimulating and fruitful meeting will be succeeded by a second meeting in Burkina Faso by the end of July which will enable the submission of a grant proposal to AIRD and BMBF.

Participants
• Jens BOCH (Germany)
• Christophe BRUGIDOU (France)
• Sébastien CUNNAC (France)
• Lionel GAGNEVIN (France)
• Alain GHESQUIÈRE (France)
• Emmanuel GUIDERDONI (France)
• Ralf KOEBNIK (France)
• Ousmane A. KOITA (Mali)
• Kossi E. KPEMOUA (Togo)
• Léonard S. OUÉDRAOGO (Burkina Faso)
• Barbara REINHOLD-HUREK (Germany)
• Ambaliou SANNI (Benin)
• Soungalo SARRA (Mali)
• Irénée SOMDA (Burkina Faso)
• Boris SZUREK (France)
• Valérie VERDIER (France)

Presentations
• Welcome note
  • Ralf KOEBNIK: Context and content of the TriLat initiative PDF-File [963 K]
• Theme 1 : The rice cultivation and BLB situation in sub-Saharan Africa
  • Léonard OUEDRAOGO: La culture du riz et la situation du BLB en Afrique subsaharienne: Cas du Burkina Faso PDF-File [194 K]
  • Soungalo SARRA: Point des connaissances sur la riziculture et les bactéries du riz au Mali PDF-File [769 K]
  • Kossi KPEMOUA: Rice cultivation and bacterial leaf blight (BLB) situation in Togo PDF-File [1276 K]
• Theme 2 : Strain typing and characterization
  • Lionel GAGNEVIN: New powerful tools for epidemiological analyses of Xanthomonas citri pv. citri with a strong evolutionary aftertaste PDF-File [1204 K]
  • Ousmane KOITA: Strain typing and laboratory capability at University of Bamako PDF-File [1240 K]
  • Ralf KOEBNIK: Typing of Xanthomonas oryzae PDF-File [1642 K]
  • Valérie VERDIER: Needs and prospects for controlling emerging rice bacterial diseases PDF-File [1535 K]
• Theme 3 : Rice genetic/omics resources and resistance genes of relevance to sub-Saharan Africa
  • Alain GHESQUIÈRE: Rice genomics and genetics resources for Africa PDF-File [415 K]
  • Valérie VERDIER: Xanthomonas strains virulence profiling and existing rice genetic resistance/resources PDF-File [950 K]
  • Barbara REINHOLD-HUREK: Interaction mechanisms of endophytic diazotrophs with non-legume plants like rice PDF-File [1181 K]
• Theme 4 : TAL effectors, their critical impact on deciding between susceptibility and resistance and their potential as guides for the development of novel resistances
  • Jens BOCH: TAL effectors: Structure, function and application PDF-File [4017 K]
  • Boris SZUREK: TAL effectors targets in Xanthomonas oryzae African strains PDF-File [3127 K]
• Theme 5 : Capacity building in the region
  • Christophe BRUGIDOU: Institut de recherche pour le dèveloppement: Support for capacity building PDF-File [1607 K]
  • Irénée SOMDA: Capacity building in Burkina Faso - Current status and prospects PDF-File [606 K]
  • Ambaliou SANNI: Enseignement de la biologie moléculaire à la FAST (UAC) PDF-File [1061 K]

Latest update of content: July 7, 2011

Ralf Koebnik
Institut de recherche pour le dèveloppement
UMR186 RPB, CIRAD-UM2-IRD
911, Avenue Agropolis, BP 64501
34394 Montpellier, Cedex 5
FRANCE
Phone: +33 (0)4 67 41 62 28
Fax: +33 (0)4 67 41 61 81
Email: koebnik(at)gmx.de
Please replace (at) by @.