The 2019 International Society for Molecular Plant-Microbe Interaction XVIII congress (2019 IS-MPMI) was held at the Scotland national Conference Center in United Kingdom, from July 14 to 18, 2019. Over 1400 representatives, including eminent professors, scientists and technical experts along with many postgraduate students across dozens of countries attended the congress.

Prof. Liu Shusheng was invited to present research on “Viral protein suppression of plant defence enhances performance of insect vector”. In this presentation, Prof. Liu showed the recent progress made with regard to the tripartite interaction between whitefly, geminiviruses and crops, highlighting the findings that geminiviruses were able to manipulate the shared host plants to benefit their insect vectors and in turn promote their own spread. During his presentation, Prof. Liu exchanged research ideas with many world-renowned scientists including Prof. Saskia Hogenhout (John Innes Centre, UK) and Prof. Sheng-Yang He (Michigan State University, USA).

At the same time, a postdoctoral researcher and three PhD candidate students, namely Pan Lilong, lei Teng, Zou Chi, and Wang Fang, presented their research at 2019 IS-MPMI as poster, with the title of Variation of barriers to begomovirus movement within vector body affects virus transmission, An endosymbiont increases the retention of a plant virus in its whitefly host, Ethylene participate in plant defense response to whitefly Bemisia tabaci, and Manipulation of plant defence response by a whitefly salivary protein.