The 2012 Fusarium Genetics Workshop was held at the Max-Planck-Institute in Marburg, Germany on Friday, March 30, 2012.  The meeting was moderated by the meeting organizer Bettina Tudzynski. The program included three sessions:  Host-Fungal Interactions (chaired by Antonio Di Pietro), Secondary Metabolism (chaired by Dr. Tudzynski) and Genomics (chaired by Corby Kistler).

Following the session, opportunities for collaborative projects were discussed. Among the discussions arising were:

·         Two JGI Community Sequencing Proposals involving Fusarium species will be submitted by the April 12, 2012 deadline for letters of intent.  One proposal on the topic of "Bioremediation and novel metabolites" will be organized by David Geiser <dgeiser@psu.edu>.  A second proposal on the topic of "Plant-Microbe Interactions and Endophytes"  will be organized by Georgiana May <gmay@umn.edu>.  Both proposals are intended as community efforts. Input and suggestions are welcome. See <http://www.jgi.doe.gov/CSP/overview.html> for more details.

·         Kim Hammond-Kosack <kim.hammond-kosack@rothamsted.ac.uk> has agreed to collect information on mutants created by the Fusarium community that have led to cultures with no detectable change in phenotype.  While these mutants do not usually lead to publication, information on negative results nonetheless would be valuable for publication in collected form. Individuals with such mutants are encouraged to send information on the strains to Dr. Hammond-Kosack with the goal of preparing a list of genes that could lead to a small publication, most likely in PLoS ONE by mid-summer 2012.  Submission of useable data would lead to co-authorship on the paper. 

·         Matias Pasquali <matias.pasquali@gmail.com> has agreed to make a database of genes from all species of Fusarium for which mutants have been made. The purpose of the database will be to inform researchers of progress in order to avoid duplication of work, to acknowledge negative results,  and to stimulate potential new collaboration and exchanges of mutants creating a virtual repository of Fusarium knock out strains. Besides published work, information on unpublished mutants also may be included.  A downloadable spreadsheet with requested information on strains can be provided by Dr. Pasquali.

·         Li-Jun Ma <lijun@psis.umass.edu>  will be compiling information on the currently sequenced genomes of Fusarium to promote collaboration and avoid redundancy. Information will be published at the Fusigroup web page and updated on a yearly basis.  If you have genome sequence data and would like to share your work, please contact Dr. Ma.

The 2013 Fusarium Genetics Workshop will be held ahead of the 27th Fungal Genetics Conference (FGC) at Asilomar <http://www.fgsc.net/27thFGC/index.htm>.  The Fusarium Workshop will be held the morning of March 12, 2013 before the evening introductory session of the FGC.  Martijn Rep <m.rep@uva.nl> and Michael Freitag <freitagm@cgrb.oregonstate.edu> have agreed to serve as organizers of the scientific program.

By virtue of their organization of the 2013 Fusarium Genetics Workshop, Dr. Rep and Dr. Freitag join the the Fusigroup Executive Committee along with Antonio DiPietro, Bettina Tudzynski, Corby Kistler, Kevin McClusky (collections), and Igor Grigoriev (sequencing center).  Cees Waalwijk and Yin-Won Lee rotate off the committee in 2012.

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