C.T. Bull (Convener), S.H. De Boer, T.P. Denny, G. Firrao, M. Fischer-Le Saux, G.S. Saddler, M. Scortichini, D.E. Stead, Y. Takikawa

Dr. John Young officially retired from the Committee and as Convener in July of 2006, but graciously continued working with the committee until June 2008. John astutely led the committee for nearly 30 years.

The Committee last formally met at the 11th International Conference on Plant Pathogenic Bacteria, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, 10-14 July 2006. The minutes for that meeting are available on the CTPPB website.

The following actions were initiated and/or completed since 2006:

• The Committee along with the help of Dr. Peter Williamson has up-dated the CTPPB website ( http://www.isppweb.org/about_tppb.asp ). The website was restructured to make it more navigable. The difficulties experienced in 2006 with up-dating the website no longer exist. The website continues to house the International Standards for Naming Pathovars, the List of Names of Plant Pathogenic Bacteria 1864-1996, and updates of names after 2000. We developed several new features for the website including:
• An online submission form for notifying the CTPPB Convener of new names that have been effectively for inclusion in the Lists of Names of Bacterial Plant Pathogens (see "Submit a New Name" link at http://www.isppweb.org/about_tppb.asp )
• Committee business (agendas and minutes from meetings, a history of the committee, current committee activities)
• A news section on the homepage of the committee
• The manuscript Demystifying the Nomenclature of Bacterial Plant Pathogens is being written by the committee based on the poster presented by the committee in 2006 at Edinburgh, Scotland. The need for a manuscript to help plant pathologists understand the Code and the Standards and their application was identified by attendees at the meeting in Charlottetown PEI, Canada. It is the intent of the CTPPB to submit the manuscript to Plant Pathology by the end of August 2008.
• The document, Names of Plant Pathogenic Bacteria through 2006, will be posted to the CTPPB eminently. However, the committee is in discussion about the format for future Lists of Names of Plant Pathogenic Bacteria. Currently the lists are only being posted to the ISPP-CTPPB website. However, previous editions of the lists were published in citable journals. Because web addresses are transient many journals do not allow citations of web addresses and the documents are at risk of being lost. Thus, the current lists do not meet all the documentation criteria of the scientific community. The committee is discussing the possibility of publishing the annual list in citable journals or having DOI assigned to the documents. No descision has been made and the comprehensive 2006 up-date is to be posted directly to the web.

• A discussion forum was initiated on the ISPP website in 2000, but was removed in 2008 due to inactivity.

• The committee remains reactive in that we responded to inquiries and commented on proposals for their adherence to the Standards or in situations when nomenclatural proposals were viewed as unhelpful to the taxonomy of plant pathogens.

• There is ongoing confusion about the meaning of "type strain." The committee needs to decide if it would like to address this issue.
• We have identified that the lack of formal coordination between the Code and the Standards has led to proposals that are not consistent with the intent of scientific nomenclature and hinders communication about plant pathogenic bacteria. The committee needs to decide what action it will take to remedy this situation.
• The committee needs to determine if the List of Illegitimate Names should be up-dated.
• The committee has discussed making a listing of groups of plant pathogenic bacteria that need significant taxonomic work.

• Work on the structure of the committee was initiated in 2000 and advanced in 2006. Our goal was to develop a Constitution for the CTPPB. Although not a requirement for ISPP Subject Matter Committees, we feel that some guiding framework should be developed. Work on this document was essentially on hold due to our more pressing work on a manuscript and New Names document. However, it is still the intent of the committee to develop the document.
• The committee identified a need to better publicize our existence and function. Upon publication of the Names of Plant Pathogenic Bacteria through 2006, the convener will work with the committee to advertise the new list to relevant groups of plant pathologists and journal editors as well as to advertise the new submission form for inclusion of recently published new names.

Submitted by Carolee T. Bull (Convener),

US Department of Agriculture, 1636 E Alisal Street, Salinas, CA 93905, USA; e-mail: Carolee.Bull@ars.usda.gov

July 2013 Committee Report to the ISPP Executive and Council

Committee on the (Committee on the Taxonomy of Plant Pathogenic Bacteria)

Subject Matter Committee: Committee on the Taxonomy of Plant Pathogenic Bacteria (CTPPB)

Established: 1982 (initially under the auspices of the Bacteriology Committee) http://www.isppweb.org/about_tppb_history.asp

 Web address for SMC: www.isppweb.org/about_tppb.asp

 Name of personnel preparing report. Carolee T. Bull Convener, CTPPB

 Nominated Officers:

We have no officers for the committee though Dr. Bull serves as the Convener.

 Current membership

• C.T. Bull (Convener), US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Salinas, California, USA
• T.A. Coutinho, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
•   T.P. Denny, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia USA
• G. Firrao, Udine University, Udine, Italy
•  M. Fischer-Le Saux, Institut National De La Recherche Agronomique, Beaucouze Cedex, France
• X. Li, Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada; G.S. Saddler, Scottish Agricultural Science Agency, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
• M. Scortichini, Istituto Sperimentale per la Frutticoltura, Roma, Italy
• D.E. Stead, Food and Environment Research Agency, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, York, UK
• Y. Takikawa, Shizuoka University, Shizuoka, Japan

We announced the retirement of the esteemed Dr. Solke DeBoer from the committee in the May 2012 ISPP Newsletter. At the announcement of Dr. DeBoer’s retirement, CVs were collected from potential new committee members. The committee reviewed the candidates and selected two new members in anticipation of additional retirements. We announced the appointment of Drs. Teresa Coutinho and Sean Li onto the committee in the September, 2012 ISPP Newsletter. We will be looking for at least one additional member for the committee in the coming year and are hoping to continue to increase diversity in nationality, race, and geographic location.

Committee Meetings:

The Committee last formally met at the 24th International Congress of Plant Pathology in Torino, Italy August 2008.  Members attending: C.T. Bull, G. Firrao, G.S. Saddler, Y. Takikawa. The agenda for the meeting is available on the CTPPB website.

The CTPPB will hold two meetings at the 25^th International Congress of Plant Pathology in Beijing, China. The first meeting will be a closed meeting of just committee members and the second meeting will be an open meeting directly after the special session on bacterial taxonomy. The proposed agenda for the closed CTPPB business meeting is provided under Focus Issues.

The vast majority of committee business is done via electronic communications. 

Committee Activities:

Publications:

·         C T Bull, S H De Boer, T P Denny, G Firrao, M Fischer-Le Saux, G S Saddler, M Scortichini, D E Stead, Y Takikawa. (2012) List of New Names of Plant Pathogenic Bacteria (2008-2010) Journal of Plant Pathology 94 (1), 21-27. See:  http://dx.doi.org/10.4454/jpp.fa.2011.003.

·         We are currently working on the next list of names, Bull et al., 2014 List of New Names of Plant Pathogenic Bacteria (2010-2012) and plan to have this publication submitted this fall.

·         Developed an efficient strategy for updating the new names list.

Website activities:

• Removed the discussion forum from the website due to inactivity
• Posted links to publications and announcements of changes in committee membership
• Addition of Submit a New Name online form for published names
• Up-dated Historical records to the website

Resources for Committee Members:

·         Drs. Bull and Ana Zacaroni (currently of EMBRAPA, Brazil) organized a file of all the manuscripts cited in the comprehensive and new names lists. The files were distributed to all of the committee members. Each committee member now has nearly all the manuscripts cited in the CTPPB publications.

Subject Matter Committee focus issues:

Our focus issues are reflected in the proposed agenda for the closed meeting of the CTPPB.

Proposed agenda for 2013 closed meeting:

The committee will be discussing many issues and deciding on which high priority issues should be taken care of.

1.      Potential publications:

a.       New Names 2010-2012

b.      Letters to the editor about type and pathotype strains

c.       Letters to the editor about nomenclatural confusion between the Code and the standards

d.      Groups that need significant taxonomic work. Look at the List of Plant Pathogenic Bacteria and determine which groups need significant taxonomic work.  Write as a review article. 

e.       Other topics for publication

2.      Website issues:

a.       What shall we do with the defunct Names list on the web

b.      Shall we have a sub-committee work on developing a new web list

c.       Reorganization of the website (links to the websites of culture collections, of journals of interest, of sites dealing with bacterial taxonomy, reading lists)

d.      Develop a list of users to whom we can send information as needed

e.       Is there a way to promote more interaction between the committee and others through the website? Do we need to?

3.      Committee Function and structure: How shall we proceed to produce our by-laws or constitution? Should we appoint a sub-committee to finish this work. Work on the structure of the committee was initiated in 2000 and advanced in 2006.  Is it still the intent of the committee to develop the document?

a.       Committee Reason d’etre or Charge

b.      Responsibilities of ISPP to the Committee

c.       Responsibilities and charge of the Committee

d.      Responsibilities of Committtee Members and Convener

e.       Length of Terms of Committee Members and Convener

f.       Nomination of New Committee Members (should we nominate additional members upon David and Tim’s retirements from the committee)

g.      Nomination of New Committee Convener

h.      Do we need a secretary

i.        Postdoctoral intern for the committee

j.        Other issues that need to be covered

4.      We have identified that the lack of formal coordination between the Code and the Standards has led to proposals that are not consistent with the intent of scientific nomenclature and hinders communication about plant pathogenic bacteria. The committee needs to decide what action it will take action to remedy this situation.

5.      The committee identified a need to better publicize our existence and function.  How shall we accomplish this?

6.      Should we write a how to guide to developing names list? This could help us each time we write these documents and will help new members.

7.      Develop a database with information about all taxa to help explain choices made by the committee

8.      Work on the New Guide to Plant Pathogenic Bacteria.  Is this project still moving forward or should we take it on. Many of us contributed to John Young’s effort. Does anyone know the status?

9.      Determine agenda for open meeting. 

Additional activities

Additional work identified: 

Submitted by (Carolee T. Bull) (Convener)),

(US Department of Agriculture, 1636 E Alisal Street, Salinas, CA 93905, USA; Carolee.Bull@ARS.USDA.GOV )