RE SEARCH Louise Fresco: Developments around genetic modification will continue undeterred ‘Classic breeding complemented by state-of-the-art technologies such as CRISPR-Cas and genetic modification serve as a very important tool kit for working on plant resistance’, argues Professor Dr. Louise Fresco during the recentlyheld 125th anniversary of the Royal Netherlands Society of Plant Pathology (KNPV) in the Reehorst conference centre in the village of Ede. Y ou could call that a very special milestone: the 125th anniversary of the Royal Netherlands Society of Plant Pathology (KNPV) in Wageningen. ‘Moreover, this is the oldest professional society for plant pathology in the entire world’ Chairman Piet Boonekamp told his Audience proudly. It’s not for nothing that this jubilee-celebrating club of phytopathologists, founded on 11 April 1891, is having a fantastic party exactly on the jubilee day. One of the founders, who later also left his mark on the society for many years, was Dr. Jan Ritzema Bos. Within the potato sector, he’s especially well-known for his extensive, pioneering, phytopathological research on this crop. At a jubilee meeting of phytopathologists, you naturally expect renowned guest speakers who are familiar with plant pathology such as Professor Dr. Louise Fresco, Chairman of the Executive Board of Wageningen University. There are certainly quite a few statements you could make for a 125-year-old Society, the guest speaker must have thought when preparing her address. Off-the-cuff, in front of over three hundred guests, she lists a considerable number of solid statements during her interesting lecture entitled ‘The scientific challenges for a larger but more sustainable world food crop production for the coming decades and the role in that of plant pathology’. Much more precise intervention with CRISPR-Cas Plant pathology, history teaches us, forms a very determining factor in respect of the world food supply. When the Professor looks back only at her own research history, that topic has had a continuous key role in her work. That had already started at the beginning of her career with promotional research into a crop-threatening disease in the cassava root vegetable in Zaire, then called the Congo. ‘Cassava was and still is an important food for the very poorest in many African countries’, and the ‘To have genetic modification sanctioned, there still is a big problem in the area of definition’ search for a control method therefore had an enormous impact on this food source in this part of the world, she argues. In her later working period at the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), Fresco was responsible for searching for solutions to control the desert locusts. Together with other researchers, she was asked to develop an early warning system to forecast possible locust plagues. ‘But what are the challenges for today and for the future if we’re talking about research in the area of plant pathology?’, Fresco then wonders aloud. In her opinion, the answer can be summarised in four words: ‘Grow healthy, sustainable food’. Classic plant breeding has brought much good, the Professor refers to the results of the past 125 years. 28 Potato World 2016 • number 3 Pagina 27
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