What’s Growing On in Plant Science?

November 30, 2022; Volume 22

News

Dilantha Fernando was invited by the National Science Foundation of Sri Lanka to broaden partnerships with universities in Sri Lanka and universities in Canada on the invitation of Prof. Ranjith Senaratne, Chairman of the NSF. During the visit discussions were held with the NSF staff with a view to enhancing academic cooperation and building partnerships with the University of Manitoba in particular, and Canadian Universities in general. Dr. Sepalika Sudasinghe, Director General,  Dr. Thamara Dias, Addl. Director, Dr. Shantha Siri, Head of the International Affairs Division and Scientific Officers of the NSF took part in the discussion. 

Professor Fernando is also the Principal Liaison Point in Canada for the Global Digital Platform (GDP) constructed by the NSF to harness Sri Lanka expatriates for national development.  Canada being the second largest country in the world, it was decided to appoint a liaison point for each relevant province to enroll more Sri Lanka expatriates with the GDP for enhanced collaboration with Canadian Universities and Professor Fernando will lead these efforts for directing partnerships. Prof. Fernando discussed ways and means of promoting academic cooperation and research collaboration between the two countries.

Professor Fernando also met with the Minister of Education in Sri Lanka, Dr. Susil Premajayantha, Chairman University Grants Commission, Professor Sampath Amarathunge, Vice-Chairman University Grants Commission, Professor Chandana Udawatte, Secretary to the Ministry of Education, Mr. M.N. Ranasinghe, and Advisor to the Minister of Education, Professor Gunapala Nanayakkara to enhance the Global Digital Platform concept. The Global Digital Platform will allow academics and students in Canada from any university and from any discipline to have direct links to academics and students in Sri Lanka in mutual alliances, collaborations, training, academic teaching, research and exchange.

Dilantha Fernando was invited by the Department of Botany, Open University, Colombo, Sri Lanka to discuss graduate opportunities for students, and to give a seminar. Dilantha's talk was titled, "Feeding the world with cereals: mitigating mycotoxin contamination and increasing food safety".

Dr. Liang Zhao, a postdoc in the Fernando Lab recently made presentations - Artificial intelligence: a promising technique in crop disease management - at two conferences (47^th annual meeting of the Western Committee on Plant Disease and the 43^rd annual meeting of the Plant Pathology Society of Alberta).  The presentations were on the potential application of new technologies (especially artificial intelligence (AI)) in disease management. The presentations focused on the number one cash crop Canola (Brassica napus) whose production is severely threatened by many diseases such as blackleg (caused by Leptosphaeria maculans), clubroot (by Plasmodiophora brassicae Woronin), Sclerotinia stem rot (by Sclerotinia sclerotiorum), Verticillium stripe (Verticillium longisporum).

Amy Mangin successfully defended her PhD thesis in November.  Amy was supervised by Anita Brûlé-Babel and Yvonne Lawley.  Congratulations Amy!

Amy has published:

Mangin, A., Brûlé-Babel, A., Flaten, D., Wiersma, J., & Lawley, Y. (2022). Maximizing spring wheat productivity in the eastern Canadian Prairies: I. Yield, yield components, and lodging risk. Agronomy Journal, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1002/agj2.21044

Mangin, A., Brûlé-Babel, A., Flaten, D., Wiersma, J., & Lawley, Y. (2022). Maximizing spring wheat productivity in the eastern Canadian Prairies II. Grain nitrogen, grain protein, and nitrogen use. Agronomy Journal, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1002/agj2.21080

Mangin, A., Brûlé-Babel, A., Flaten, D., Wiersma, J., & Lawley, Y. (2022). Canopy management: the balance between lodging risk and nitrogen use for spring wheat p     roduction in the Canadian prairies. Can. J. Plant Sci. 102: 984–1000 (2022) | dx.doi.org/10.1139/CJPS-2021-0287

Mangin, A., Heuschele, J., Brûlé-Babel, A., Flaten, D., Wiersma, J., & Lawley, Y. (2022). Rapid in situ non-destructive evaluation of lodging risk in dryland agronomic wheat research, Agronomy Journal, 114, 2822–2829. https://doi.org/10.1002/agj2.21173

Amy’s Advisory Committee: Don Flaten, Amy Mangin, Jochum Wiersma, Yvonne Lawley, Anita Brûlé-Babel

Robert Gulden, Rebecca Dueck, Jon Rosset, Dale Penner, Dilshan Benaragama and Douglas Cattani presented and/or participated at the Joint Canadian Weed Science Society – Canadian Society of Agronomy meetings in Halifax , NS, November 14-18. 

Will Bailey-Elkin, Michelle Carkner and Martin Entz won the CWSS paper of the year (2021) in the Canadian Journal of Plant Science for their paper entitled “Intercropping organic field peas with barley, oats, and mustard improves weed control but has variable effects on grain yield and net returns.” (Can. J. Plant Sci. 102: 515–528 (2022) dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjps-2021-0182)

True Confessions

Martin Entz has a confession to share with the department…….

Because they were sometimes short staffed in the field in 2022, Martin trained his dog, Matoaka, to drive the tractor. 

Justice Zhanda, Mel Kaufman and Doug Cattani will be happy to know that Matoaka did receive full safety training and carefully read the standard operating procedures before each outing.  The one fly in the ointment was that she had difficulty securing the seat belt.  Otherwise she was a great 2022 tractor dog!