10.6092/issn.2531-7342/6018
application/pdf
2531-7342
6018
en
Claudia Perini
Italian Journal of Mycology
Congress
The memorable XVII Congress of the European Mycological Association (EMA) Funchal (Madeira, Portugal, September 20th-25th 2015)
Text.Serial.Journal
https://italianmycology.unibo.it/
45
News
2016-03-09
2016-03-09
2016-04-21
2018-08-20
Ital J Mycol
Claudia Perini
2016/03/09
10.6092/issn.2531-7342/6018
University of Siena
2531-7342
Congress
en
The memorable XVII Congress of the European Mycological Association (EMA) Funchal (Madeira, Portugal, September 20th-25th 2015)
https://italianmycology.unibo.it/article/download/6018/5793
45
DOI: 10.6092/issn.2531-7342/6018                            Italian Journal of Mycology ISSN 2531-7342



The memorable XVII Congress of the European Mycological Association (EMA)
          Funchal (Madeira, Portugal, September 20th- 25th 2015)

Claudia Perini,
Former EMA secretary, University of Siena, Italy




The XVII Congress of the European Mycological Association (EMA) was hosted for the first time
in Portugal, in Funchal in the beautiful Atlantic island of Madeira, from the 20th to 25th September
2015. João Baptista-Ferreira from the Lisbon University was chair of the organizing committee, and
David Minter, CABI, the EMA president, was president of the Congress .
       In spite of the global crisis, the conference had a great success. Indeed, about 150
mycologists from 34 countries (Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Egypt, Estonia,
Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia,
Luxembourg, Mexico, Nigeria, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea,
Spain, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Turkey, Ukraine and United Kingdom) came together. Italy
was well represented by 12 participants form the North, the Center and the South of the country.
        The Congress started with the formal opening session and the address of the president D.
Minter. Firstly, he remembered the loss of Erast Parmasto and Reinhold Pöder, two scientists whose
contribution inside EMA was fundamental. Among important initiatives of EMA, the president
cited the Index Fungorum, the well know online database that most of us refer to, and that someone
contributed to, and the freely available CYBERTRUFFLE, which is, as it is written on its
homepage, “something extra for fungi”. The EMA president remembered that Fungi are present in
various other networks and initiatives, such as the International Union for Conservation of Nature
(IUCN), and he invited all of us to continue to collaborate and to contribute. He pointed out that it
depends on us how strong EMA can go on, how fungi can be considered, and how to involve a new
generation of mycologists.
During the following days, invited speakers presented results of their long time observations and
monitoring. The topics were the following: changes in climate bring to changes in fungal fruiting
patterns and consequently in interactions (Alan Gange, UK), changes in environment bring also to
changes in lichens and their ecological niches (William Purvis, UK), increased global trade brings
DOI: 10.6092/issn.2531-7342/6018                            Italian Journal of Mycology ISSN 2531-7342



to changes in alien invasive pests and pathogens threatening our forests (Stephen Woodward, UK).
Then, particular aspects of symbiosis were reported by analyzing arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and
their multitude of interactions that can bring to changes of a community of different organisms
(Alison E. Benett, UK). Finally, the knowledge and still open questions surrounding truffles, their
soil ecology and the importance of their cultivation, were discussed (Alessandra Zambonelli, IT).
Oral communications (59) and posters (88) were distributed in the following parallel sessions:
Applied mycology and fungal biotechnology; Environment, ecology and interactions; Cell biology,
biochemistry and physiology; Fungal pathogenesis and disease control; Evolution, biodiversity and
systematic; Field mycology and conservation; Genomics, genetics and molecular biology.
Two afternoons were dedicated to symposia titled “Biodiversity, informatics and fungal data” and
“Fungal conservation and ECCF meeting”. During the first symposium, some authors (Rui Figueira,
Lyobomir Penev, Urmas Kõljalg, Matias Pasquali, Dimitry Schigel) underlined from different point
of view the importance of open-access databases which are fundamental for collecting and sharing
digital data. Various possible links were presented and applications were explained. They are
generally underutilized even if they are essential to promote mycology and fungal conservation.
Different kinds of data can be memorized: the UNITE database for molecular identification of fungi
community adopted the Species Hypotheses approach for ITS-based molecular identification and
discovery of fungal species; a large dataset, in which also Italians participate, on Fusarium species
producing mycotoxins has been created in order to try to answer epidemiological questions. The
GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility) is globally recognized as Intergovernmental
Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services and the connected Data Paper, like Integrated
Publishing Toolkit (IPT) and Pensoft’s Journals (see MycoKeys), are rapidly evolving.
Collaboration and community building were solicited. This was also the goal of the second
symposium: encouraging every one of us to promote fungal conservation. It is also our fault if our
governments don’t know fungi. David Minter underlined how we can contribute through stressing
the importance of fungi and their conservation at various levels (for example, incrementing
Wikipedia sources, taking attention on Country reports to the Convention on Biological Diversity).
On the other hand, it is fundamental to know which fungi we have, where they grow and if they are
threatened or not. Martyn Ainsworth exposed “The lost and found Fungi project” that started in
2014 in the UK, and André Fraiture presented the publication “Distribution, ecology and status of
51 macromycetes in Europe”, that is the result of a long time mapping project of ECCF. Once
again, both examples are about networking and sharing data, at national or international level.
The participation at the various sessions and symposia was active with varicolored discussions and
some fruitful debate.
The congress closed with the General Assembly and the report of the EMA president David Minter.
The main functions of EMA were summarized and the fulfilled aims listed. Then a more relaxing
part started during which different awards were distributed.
Stephanos Diamandis and Maria Lawrynowicz become Honorary members; the founders award
was presented to Paul Kirk, Pedro Cruz, David Hawksworth, and the congress medal to João
Baptista-Ferreira, the chairman of the XVII CEM Organizing Committee. André Fraiture, Peter
Otto and Beatrice Senn-Irlet were elected for the work for conservation, Miguel Torrejon‐Herrero
for the deep field mycology, Vadim Melnik for systematics, Lynne Boddy and Urmas Kõljalg for
outstanding contribution to ecology. The first and second prize for the best poster of young
mycologists was given to Luis Quijada for “Exploring the phylogenetic and morphological
relationships of disregarded genera in Helotiales s.l.”, and to Vineet Meshram for “Antimicrobial
DOI: 10.6092/issn.2531-7342/6018                            Italian Journal of Mycology ISSN 2531-7342



and mycofumigation potential of novel Indian Muscodor species at enhancing the shelf life of fruits
and vegetables”.
David Minter accepted to be the president for the next 4 years assisted by the following officers:
Tetiana V. Andrianova, Vijai Kumar Gupta, Eske De Crop, Izabela Kałucka, Tatiana Semenova
Paulo de Oliveira, Beatrice Senn-Irlet, Susana C. Gonçalves. Finally, Poland was selected to be the
host country for the next congress in 2019.
In conclusion, we can’t forget the memorable social events, such as the traditional icebreaker party
on the evening of arrival, the Conference dinner at the picturesque São Tiago Fortress in Funchal
old town, and the Excursion to the Pico de Arieiro at 1818 m a.s.l. followed by two spectacular
itinerary, one walking along the characteristic water channels Levada do Furado from Portela to
Ribeiro Frio, the other to Vereda dos Balkoes.
