Although the project durations of both partner institutions were extended, the final meeting of the NanoPhyto project took place according to the previously agreed date of September 7, 2023 in a hybrid form in Ljubljana at NIB. After the meeting, a working lunch and a tour of the new NIB premises were arranged for part of the Croatian team that was physically present at the meeting (Marina Drčelić, Martin Jagunić, Martina Šeruga Musić and Dijana Škorić).

From Jan 30. until Feb 4, 2023, Dijana Škorić trained at the National Institute of Biology (NIB) in Ljubljana. During her one-week stay, as part of the workshops, with the help of partners, she analyzed viruses from water samples collected on the fields in the second project year (2022) from two locations included in the NanoPhyto project. She also analyzed part of the data from the Illumina resequencing of tomato viromes from Croatia and compared the data obtained with different procedures used by partners from Slovenia.

 
On our way back from Bled, and the1st Slovenian Microbiome Symposium, to Zagreb, on November 25, 2022. we took the opportunity to stop by at our partners' institution, the National Institute of Biology in Ljubljana. We held a hybrid working meeting so that members of the research groups who were not physically on site could also attend. We discussed the results of the project so far and the plans for the next period, which is also the last project year. Among other things, the international conference participation during 2023, workshops and preparation of joint scientific papers were discussed.

Meeting of the NanoPhyto project team members was held on April 13, 2022. Reports on recent progress with research, procedures and publications was reported from the members of both teams in the fields of virus, phytoplasma and HTS investigations. A Croatian postdoc Dorotea Grbin was introduced officially to all team members. This time, the meeting was also held fully online.
The next meeting is scheduled in six months.

Dijana Škorić (PI) and Dorotea Grbin (postdoc) have attended personalized workshops on HTS data analyses and water samples preparation and HTS analyses at NIB, Ljubljana in the last week of June and the first week of July, 2022. We are very pleased with the new experience and know-how our Slovenian partners shared with us. Looking forward to further hands-on and virtual collaboration!

On July 7, 2022, members of Croatian and Slovenian team had a joint meeting with tomato growers (OPG Čakjulić) in Sedlarica near Pitomača. Tomato and other vegetable species cultivated on location were inspected and samples of symptomatic plants were taken. Working lunch was held in the neighbouring village Otrovanec where phytosanitary problems and further collaboration were discussed.

Lecture

Within the framework on several collaboration projects, including the NanoPhyto project, a member of the research team from Slovenia, Ph.D. Denis Kutnjak from the National Institute of Biology (NIB, Ljubljana) gave a lecture at the Department of Biology of the Faculty of Science, Rooseveltov trg 6, on 1 December 2021 (lecture room BO1), starting at 11 am entitled “Environmental virology and wastewater epidemiology: from plant viruses to SARS-CoV-2".

After the lecture and the discussion, an informal working meeting of the Croatian research team with drs. Denis Kutnjak and Katarina Bačnik (NIB, Ljubljana) was held.

1st Project Year End Meeting and the 3rd Project Workshop

On 16 September 2021, the first physical project meeting concluding the first project year was held in Ljubljana at the premises of the National Institute of Biology (NIB). In the period from 11 am to noon, a hybrid physical-virtual meeting of project participants was held in which D. Škorić, M. Šeruga Musić and M. Drčelić participated online, although physically present in the NIB seminar room in Ljubljana. Other project participants were attend the meeting online. After a joint lunch of project participants, two hands-on workshops were held in parallel. The one was for the preparation of water samples for high-throughput virome sequencing and the other for the annotation of phytoplasma genomes. Plans to continue the intensive exchange of ideas, protocols and results were laid out, as well as the possibility of physical visits for joint laboratory analyses in the second project year.

Project Team Meeting with the 2nd Project Workshop

The second meeting was held on April 8, 2021 on the GoTo Meetings platform from 16-18:15, as organized by Slovenian partners. In the first part, lasting about 45 minutes, participated the project members, including the representatives of co-financiers BIA and the Slovenian Ministry, which also monitors the project activities whose progress and course were discussed. The 2nd project workshop was dedicated to an innovative image analysis through machine learning approach potentially applicable in the analysis of symptoms (Prof. T. Curk). Also, phytoplasma genomics  was discussed and, on behalf of Croatian partners, Assoc. Prof. Martina Šeruga Musić, Ph. D., presented her notable results and shared her experience on the subject. Slovenian partners presented the results of previous research on phytoplasmas in hazelnuts.

The kick off meeting

The kick off meeting was held due to the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions on gatherings and travel via Zoom on October 16, 2020 (15: 00-16: 40 CET), organized by the Slovenian team. Research team members from Slovenia and Croatia presented themselves, project outlines and a schedule of project activities were presented and harmonized. It was agreed that the Croatian project acronym (NanoPhyto) represents the collaborative project and the Slovenian team constructed two logos for the project. In the subsequent online voting, the project participants chose with the majority of votes the logo of the project.

Screenshot of the kick-off meeting participants.

Meeting and the 1st Project Workshop

The first working meeting was held on December 8, 2020 via GoTo Meetings platform from 2 pm to 5 pm, organized by the Slovenian team. In the first part (meeting), lasting about 45 minutes, all project participants were present, as well as a representative of the Slovenian ministry in charge of monitoring the Slovenian project. The subsequent 1st project workshop was dedicated to the selection of symptomatic plants, methods for tomato, wild plants and water sampling, protocols for the preparation of samples for various types of analysess, including sequencing and sequencing methods.

Screenshot of the Meeting and 1st Project Workshop Participants.