Oömycetes, or water molds, comprise a diverse group of heterotrophic organisms that morphologically and physiologically resemble fungi. Many oömycetes are saprophytic, especially in aquatic habitats. More commonly though, oömycetes are destructive pathogens of plants and animals. The last five years have seen a rapid expansion in resources for oömycete genomics and a rapid growth in the number of researchers interested in oomycetes. This project will strengthen the strong culture of collaboration and communication within that community and facilitate the sharing of techniques and resources.
The central thrust of the program is to ensure that the transformation of the oömycete molecular genetics community into a genomics, bioinformatics, and molecular genetics community carries all the community research groups with it, including less well-funded groups that are disproportionately located at small minority-serving or primarily undergraduate-oriented institutions, or at institutions in nations with poorly developed research-funding infrastructures. Furthermore, the entry, participation and training of new investigators into the field of oömycete genomics, particularly junior faculty and faculty from institutions under-represented in the U.S. research infrastructure, will be promoted. The mechanisms to promote these goals include an annual workshop, training workshops, brief training internships focused on bioinformatics, a web site, and a resource center to maintain and distribute materials for the worldwide oömycete genomics community.
Overview: Oomycetes are fungus-like organisms related to marine algae that are highly destructive pathogens of a vast arrays of plants and animals, including those important in agriculture, forestry, aquaculture and natural ecosystems. Effectively combatting these organisms requires the collaboration and cooperation of scientists with diverse skills located in all areas of the world. The overall aim of this project was to promote communication, collaboration and cooperation of oomycete molecular genetics researchers through an annual conference, short training visits between research groups, training workshops, a website and email list and through providing common resources. A particular focus was promoting expertise in genomics and bioinformatics within the community, especially among undergraduate and graduate student researchers. Broader Impacts: The primary thrust of the project was in the area of broader impacts, especially training and communication. Six conferences were held for the oomycete molecular genetics community, attended by 666 participants, of whom 126 received travel awards from this grant. Seven bioinformatics training workshops were held, attended by 230 participants. 27 scientists participated in training internships in network labs. The number of research labs registered with the network grew from 109 in 2007-08 to 230 in 2012-13. Intellectual Merit: The project contributed to the advancement of knowledge about oomycetes and how to control them through increased communication and collaboration. As one measure of this increase, the number of publications mentioning oomycete genes increased from 4970 in 2007-08 to 13,400 in 2007-2013 – a 2.7-fold increase. Furthermore, the number of publications mentioning oomycete bioinformatics increased from 597 in 2007-08 to 4190 in 2007-2013 – a 7-fold increase.
