Feedback by CARMEN ROMERALO

The 5th Workshop in Genetics of Tree-Parasite Interactions, was held in Orleans (France), from the 23rd to the 28th of  August 2015. The main topics of the conference were:

• Resistance / tolerance and virulence / aggressiveness mechanisms.
• Breeding and management strategies for durable resistance in a changing environment.
• Host-parasite co-evolution.
• Novel host-parasite interactions due to emerging or non-native pests and pathogens.
• Population genetics of pests, pathogens and vectors.
• New frontiers in tree-parasite interactions: from genes to landscape and communities.

Thanks to the EVOLTREE group, who supported economically my stay, I had the opportunity of presenting my work as a talk entitled: “Aleppo pine provenances vary in susceptibility and secondary chemical response to Gremmeniella abietina infection” which was developed as a collaboration between my institution, the Sustainable Forest Research Institute, University of Valladolid-INIA and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.

The conference had great invited speakers such as Anna-Liisa Laine, Carole  Kerdelhué and Mathieu Fournié as well as many other forest pathologist. A discussion forum was also performed about the best strategies to fight against forest pathogens. A marvelous field trip was organized, and we had the opportunity of visiting several forest stands and forest in the region, as well as some nice castles.

I want to express my gratitude to the EVOLTREE group to give me the opportunity of assisting to this workshop.