MBF2019: First Joint Meeting of the GfG "Gen AG Fungal Genetics" with the VAAM Specialist Group "Biology and Biotechnology of Fungi"
The biennial conference "Molecular Biology of Fungi" of the VAAM (Association of German Ambulatory Mycologists) Fungal Biology and Biotechnology Division was held for the first time jointly with the "Fungal Genetics" Working Group of the German Society for Genetics (GenAG) from September 19-21, 2019. During the conference, eight invited, internationally renowned plenary speakers and 22 additional speakers, selected from submitted abstracts, gave presentations on various topics in fungal genetics, fungal cell biology, and biotechnology. In addition, 88 posters were presented. Thanks to financial support from the German Society for Genetics (GfG), six prizes for young researchers were awarded for the best posters.
A jury of experienced scientists awarded the Best Poster Award in the poster sessions "Plant Pathology" and "Pathogenesis of Infectious Diseases" to Thomas Leisen (University of Kaiserslautern) for his presentation of a highly efficient CRISPR/Cas9 transformation system for Botrytis cinerea and to Osama Elshafee (Hans Knöll Institute, Jena) for the generation of lipase mutants in Candida albicans. Three poster prizes in the categories "Cell Biology" and "Multicellular Development" went to Xiaolei Gao (KIT, Karlsruhe) for her poster on the regulation of MTOC in Aspergillus nidulans, to Senthil Kumar Devan (University of Düsseldorf) for his work on endosome-mediated mRNA transport in Ustilago maydis, and to Ramona Lütgenhaus (Ruhr University Bochum) for her poster on the analysis of transcription factors and chromatin modification during fruiting body development of Sordaria macrospora. Nicole Hensel (KIT, Karlsruhe) won the poster prize in the "Sensing and Sensing" category for her poster on the analysis of virulence factors in the nematode-trapping fungus Duddingtonia flagrans.
