“Sino-German Bilateral Integrative Omics Workshop on Fusarium-Cereal Interactions” was held on November 23rd-26th 2023, at Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, P. R. China. This workshop is founded by Sino-German Center for Research Promotion and co-organized by Nanjing Agricultural University, China and Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany. The meeting aimed at building up a closer connection between scientists from but not limited to these two countries, to gain in-depth knowledge of cereal-Fusarium interactions, and to expend the utility of cutting-edge omics technology in related fields, and eventually to foster future collaborations.

This meeting invited eight German scientists from Justus Liebig University Giessen, Max Planck Institute, Julius Kuehn-Institute (JKI)-Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants, University of Cologne and University of Bonn, and one scientist from Oak Ridge National Laboratory；and thirteen Chinese scientists from China Agricultural University, Nanjing Agricultural University, Henan Agricultural University, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Zhejiang University, Fujian Agriculture And Forestry University and Yangzhou University. There were 23 presentations in related topics: the recent Fusarium-cereals interaction research progress; the potential utility of MSI in the area of plant-pathogen interaction; Fusarium genome, pathogenicity and management; the cutting-edge technologies and their applications in crop-pathogen interactions; molecular and genetic mechanisms underlying Fusarium disease resistance by using integrative-omics technologies. There were more than 70 scientists from domestic and aboard attended the meeting.

On behalf of Chinese and German university, Professor Xiue Wang the director of the China-Kenya “Belt and Road” Joint Lab of Crop Molecular Biology and vice director of state key laboratory of crop genetics & germplasm enhancement and utilization in Nanjing Agricultural University, and Professor Bernhard Spengler from Justus Liebig University Giessen addressed opening remarks. Prof. Xiquan Gao and Prof. Bernhard Spengler co-hosted the closing remarks.