The Indo-German Science and Technology Center (IGSTC) is funding an Indo-German workshop on "Agricultural Management Practice Effects on Soil- and Plant-associated Bacterial Communities and their Resistome". The workshop is being organised by Prof. Dr. Kornelia Smalla from the Julius Kühn Institute (JKI), together with her colleague from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (ICAR), Dr. Annapurna Kannepalli.

Ten Indian and twenty German scientists will meet for the workshop at the Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy (ATB) in Potsdam from 20 to 22 June 2022. The host at ATB is Prof. Dr Gabriele Berg, who heads the Microbiome Biotechnology Department here.
The contributions of the 30 participants will deal with the occurrence and diversity of bacteria associated with plants or the soil, as well as with the horizontal transfer of antibiotic resistance genes in bacterial communities. The workshop will focus on how agricultural practices affect soil and plant microbiomes and their resistomes (by which we mean the totality of naturally occurring resistances).
Since the problem of bacterial antibiotic resistance can only be understood with a so-called One Health approach, the contributions will also deal, among other things, with the occurrence of antibiotic resistance genes in bacteria from other environmental habitats, such as faeces, manure, compost, sewage sludge, hospital wastewater or surface water.
Another focus of the workshop is the occurrence of potentially human-pathogenic bacteria on fresh plant products and the elucidation of the role of various abiotic and biotic factors that may influence their survival and spread in the soil or on fresh products.