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ICNS and its Objectives:

The International Cereal Nematodes Symposium (ICNS) is an extension of the International Cereal Nematode Initiative (ICNI) that was established in 2006. It aims to create a critical mass of scientific capacity and skills to deliver sustainable solutions by working at both the practical and theoretical level. It was initially founded as the International Cereal Cyst Nematode Initiative (ICCNI) and later expanded to include all important genera of cereal nematodes (CN).

Cereal nematodes, including both the Cereal Cyst Nematodes (Heterodera spp.; CCNs) and the Root Lesion Nematodes (Pratylenchus spp.; RLNs), are acknowledged as a global economic problem on wheat production systems in developing as well as in developed countries.

A large network of research groups has undertaken research over the last 20 years. This includes ICWIP (ICARDA-CIMMYT Wheat Improvement Program) which relates to wheat improvement research in Central Asia, West Asia and North Africa; the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in collaboration with the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA); and our National Program partners from developing countries and several research institutions in Australia and Europe. Their goals are to:

1. Understand the importance and distribution of CCNs and RLNs, which are widespread in wheat production systems throughout West Asia, North Africa, parts of Central Asia, Northern India and China.
2. Investigate potential control options with a major emphasis on host resistance, through validation and integration of resistant sources (traditional and molecular) into wheat germplasm for global wheat production systems (particularly focused on rainfed or supplementary irrigation systems). Rotation has been partially explored.
3. Provide training for scientists from developed and developing countries. Previous country hosts include Turkey (see proceedings from the 1st and 5th workshops), Austria, China, Morocco and India. These workshops were very successful in identifying the global status of the problem of cereal nematodes and forming networks and partnerships to continue working on these problems.

Currently, because of the successful precedents, this coming event will be held in Turkey with a very specialized session on fungal soil borne diseases. Also, at the end of the meeting, the organizing committee will meet to explore ideas of changing the symposium name into the International Symposium of Cereal Soil Borne Pathogens (1st ISCSBP), taking place every 3 years.

Symposium Topics:

1. An update on the status of the global distribution of CN
2. Climate change impacting the importance and population dynamics of CN on wheat
3. Management strategies of CN in wheat using host-resistance and other strategies
4. Basic research trends in CN (such as pathogen diagnostics, phylogenetic studies and plant-nematode interactions)
5. CN genome and parasitism genes
6. Novel approaches for designing CN management strategies