PHYLLOSPHERE 2022

The 11th International Symposium on Leaf Surface Microbiology (or Phyllosphere 2022) was a great success!  It was held on the University of California – Davis campus from July 17-21, 2022. A Meeting Review article was published in the 2023 Phyllosphere Focus Issue of the Phytobiomes Journal, along with many other phyllosphere-related articles. Check it out here!

The Phyllosphere 2022 program can be found here. We had an AWESOME LINEUP OF SPEAKERS, from various places in the world, covering a wide range of phyllosphere-related topics. Many thanks to all who participated in the meeting and to all sponsors and benefactors for their generous support of this conference! For a full list of sponsors, click here.

NEXT MEETING: PHYLLOSPHERE 2025
It has been confirmed: the 12th International Symposium on Leaf Surface Microbiology will happen in 2025, so mark you calendars for June 5-9, 2025 to meet at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, Okinawa, Japan, for another exciting edition of the Phyllosphere meeting. A link to the 2025 meeting website will be provided here shortly.

The ‘phyllosphere meeting’ is a (typically) quinquennial event that brings together experts from around the world with a scientific interest in leaves (and other above-ground parts of plants and trees, including flowers, fruit, buds, petioles, stems, twigs, branches, and trunks) as a habitat for microorganisms.

First held in 1970, the meeting serves as an international platform to share and learn about the latest discoveries in phyllosphere microbiology and as an incubator for new ideas and new collaborations in a field that recognizes how the many essential ecosystem services that plant foliage provides are influenced by the microscopic organisms that can be found on and in leaves (i.e. bacteria, fungi, yeasts, protists, viruses, insects).

As a discipline that became established in the 1950s, phyllosphere microbiology is now recognized as having contributed in significant ways to the study of host-microbe and microbe-microbe interactions using the leaf as an experimentally and conceptually useful model microbiome.

Phyllosphere meetings are truly multi- and inter-disciplinary. With backgrounds in such wide-ranging areas as plant pathology, food safety, microbial ecology, phytochemistry, and vegetation science, participants discuss phyllosphere microbiology in terms of problems such as foliar diseases and contamination of leafy greens with enteropathogenic bacteria, and in terms of solutions such as microbes, proteins and chemicals with plant-growth promoting activities or other commercially viable applications, and bioremediation of atmospheric pollutants.

The theme of the Phyllosphere 2022 symposium is ‘Understanding the rules of phyllospheric life’, with central questions such as these: What unique challenges and opportunities does the leaf surface present to leaf-dwelling organisms? What adaptive strategies are most successful in the phyllosphere? To what extent do these strategies benefit or disadvantage the plant host or the organisms (including humans) that depend on the health of those plants? How might answers to these questions help us grow healthier and more productive plants and trees in the face of a growing human population and uncertainties of climate change?

Andrea Ottesen
Food and Drug Administration, College Park MD
https://www.fda.gov/food/whole-genome-sequencing-wgs-program/whole-genome-sequencing-researchers#Andrea_Ottesen

“I am quite sure that the 9th International Symposium of the Microbial Ecology of Aerial Plant Surfaces (2010) was the most magical meeting of my career!
I was a freshly graduated PhD (new post doc) – and this meeting was my first opportunity to meet all the “superstars” who had steered me through my PhD with their elegant phyllosphere literature!
I was like a screaming fan at an Elvis concert (on the inside) – on the outside – I was  probably trying to appear very academic and serious! Meeting my rockstars; Drs. Brandl, Lindow, Beattie, Morris, Lambais, Vorholdt, Mahaffee, Suslow, Knief, Leveau… in the Oregon countryside was one of the most momentous and special moments of my academic career.
Thanks Phyllosphere – Phytobiome Superstars! Keep on Keepin on!”

Isabelle Laforest-Lapointe
Université de Sherbrooke, Canada
https://isabellelaforestlapointe.wordpress.com

“I attended my first International Phyllosphere Symposium in 2015 at the half-way mark of my PhD in microbial ecology. It was the most wonderful meeting I ever attended in terms of quality of the presentations, welcoming atmosphere, and scientific interactions with established researchers. It had long-lasting positive consequences on my career. I am delighted to be going back this year in Davis!”

Mitja Remus-Emsermann
University of Canterbury, New Zealand
https://www.remus-emsermann-lab.org

“In 2007, I started my PhD in Phyllosphere microbial ecology. 12 years later I do not regret this decision one bit. Our community is warm, welcoming and supportive and our science is cutting edge. Both Phyllosphere symposia I have attended so far were among the best scientific meetings I have been at. I am looking forward join the symposium in the beautiful and laid-back Davis, California.”

Britt Koskella
University of California, Berkeley
https://naturesmicrocosm.com

“As a relative newcomer into the Phyllosphere field in 2015, I was thrilled to hear about the diverse array of research being done on this important but understudied environment. The community was incredibly welcoming, and the science presented ranged from really exciting fundamental research to novel application within agriculture and beyond. I would highly recommend the meeting to newbies and long-standing phyllosphere researchers alike.”

Nadav Kashtan
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
https://www.nadavkashtan.com

“As a newcomer who recently joined the phyllosphere research community –  I’m truly excited to participate in this one of a kind meeting! See you there.”