Andy Aspin

Andy started working on the National Collection of Plant Pathogenic Bacteria (NCPPB) in 1992, when he was employed for its day-to-day maintenance.  Using the knowledge and experience garnered from working with the range of bacterial plant pathogens in the collection he soon added diagnosing bacterial plant diseases to his expertise.

The NCPPB – a founder collection of the United Kingdom Biological Resource Centres Network (UKBRCN) – is one of the largest and most comprehensive international public collections of plant pathogenic bacteria in the world, and as curator Andy has a wide-ranging and detailed knowledge of significant bacterial diseases of plants and their regulation.

Andy now sits on the Diagnostics in Bacteriology panel of the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organisation (EPPO), on behalf of Defra, and has co-authored and revised numerous diagnostic protocols.

He has represented the UK as a national expert on audit missions for the European Food and Veterinary Office (FVO) and is a member of the European Association of Phytobacteriologists. In 2022 Andy was invited to participate in the Standards & Procedures Operating Committee of the United States Culture Collection Network (USCCN).

Employing his experience and knowledge, Andy provides plant bacteriology training and advice to post-graduate students, to overseas phytobacteriologists, to APHA’s Plant Health and Seed Inspectorate, and to Defra.

Andy is a Senior Bacteriologist at Fera Science Ltd.

 

Publications:

  • Oxspring, S., Carroll, S., Bryning, A., Gaunt, A. & Aspin, A. (2024) First report of Pseudomonas syringaeinfecting Iris foetidissima in the United Kingdom. New Disease Reports, 50, e70004. https://doi.org/10.1002/ndr2.70004
  • Carroll, S., Bryning, A., Oxspring, S. & Aspin, A. (2024) First report of Pseudomonas syringaeinfecting Ribes nigrum (blackcurrant) in the UK. New Disease Reports, 49, e12254. https://doi.org/10.1002/ndr2.12254
  • Harrison J, Hussain RMF, Aspin A, Grant MR, Vicente JG, and Studholme DJ (2023) Phylogenomic Analysis Supports the Transfer of 20 Pathovars from Xanthomonas campestris into Xanthomonas euvesicatoria. Taxonomy 3, no. 1: 29-45 https://doi.org/10.3390/taxonomy3010003
  • Broders K, Aspin A, Bailey J, Chapman T, Portier P, Weir BS. (2022) Building More Resilient Culture Collections: A Call for Increased Deposits of Plant-Associated Bacteria. Microorganisms, 10, 741 https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms10040741
  • Studholme DJ, Wicker E, Abrare SM, Aspin A, Bogdanove A, Broders K, Dubrow Z, Grant MR, Jones JB, Karamura G, Lang J, Leach J, Mahuku G, Nakato GV, Coutinho T, Smith J, and Bull CT (2020) Transfer of Xanthomonas campestris arecae and X. campestris pv. musacearum to X. vasicola (Vauterin) as X. vasicola pv. arecae comb. nov. and X. vasicola pv. musacearum comb. nov. and Description of X. vasicola pv. vasculorum pv. nov. Phytopath.(110):1153-1160 https://doi.org/10.1094/PHYTO-03-19-0098-LE