WG3 Meeting No. 3
On July 5th, 2024, about 20 members of the MiCropBiomes COST Action from 11 countries met online via Zoom for the 3rd Meeting of Working Group 3.
The WG3 Leader used a presentation to briefly recall the five working groups of the Action and the close interrelationship between them. This was followed by a brief overview of the latest updates since the last WG3 online meeting on May 3rd, especially on the registrations for the 1st Training School and the 1st Annual Conference (34 and 76 applications, respectively). The WG3 Leader then recalled the 1st Grant Period Goals (GPGs) and the division into three topics subgroups (Challenges, Terminology and Applications) and two strategies subgroups (Model Crops and their Microbiota; PGPs / BCAs and Phages/Viruses) subgroups.
He also presented the results of the survey of Action participants regarding their plant(s) of interest. This survey had 110 participants so far and 90 responses regarding the plant(s) of interest. If about a quarter of the participants admit to be interested in all plants, almost a third (30%) of the participants are interested in fruits and berries, with about a fifth of them on grapevine, followed by strawberry and olive. The Solanaceae plants gather 15% of the participants covering only tomato (n = 23) and pepper (n = 8). Vegetables/legumes and cereals/pseudocereals have about the same number of participants. For the cereals/pseudocerals category, wheat, rice and maize were the ones mentioned. The Fabaceae and Brassicaceae categories have relatively low representation among the participants.
Juraj Medo then presented a way to address the terminology topic which is an overarching goal for the four WGs. With the help of AI, Juraj has already collected a list of 500 terms with their definitions. He proposed a division into four categories: Interactions, Methods, Stress, Applications. These terms are shared on the Action’s Google Drive with limited editing rights. An email communication will be initiated soon to collect any missing terms via a Google Form survey by the 1st MC meeting in September. An iterative strategy to reach a consensus on definitions was also proposed, including the involvement of recognized experts in the field. The terms and their definitions will be made publicly available via a DokuWiki platform and it is also planned to publish the most problematic terms in an opinion article.
The WG3 Leader presentation ended up with a summary of the upcoming activities of the MiCropBiomes and Root-Benefit COST Actions. The presentation was followed by a very short general discussion.
List of Participants
| Name | Role | Country |
| Joël POTHIER | WG3 Leader | CH |
| Renata ARTIMOVA | WG3 Vice Leader | SK |
| Maria A. AYLLON | WG Member | ES |
| Esther BADOSA | WG Member | ES |
| Tanja BERIĆ | MC Member | RS |
| Anna BONNATERRA | WG4 Leader | ES |
| Leonardo BRUNI | WG Member | ES |
| Irene CHRISTOFORDI | WG Member | GR |
| Olfa FRIKHA-GARGOURI | WG Member | TN |
| Hans HOENICKA | WG Member | DE |
| Juliana LUKSA | WG Member | LT |
| Juraj MEDO | MC Member | SK |
| Maria NEORALOVA | WG Member | CZ |
| Amaia NOGALES | WG Member | ES |
| Agnieszka SAEID | WG Member | PL |
| Elena SERVIENE | MC Member | LT |
| Izzah SHAHID | WG Member | ES |
| Elodie VANDELLE | WG2 Leader | IT |
| Pablo VARGAS | WG Member | ES |
The Minutes of the WG Meeting are available for download: 2024-07-05_Minutes_WG3_online_meeting.