Dear Dr. Cai,

my name is Simone Prospero and I work in the team of Phytopathology at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest Snow and Landscape Research (WSL; https://www.wsl.ch/en/about-wsl/research-units/forest-health-and-biotic-interactions/phytopathology.html).

I am currently leading a project in which we aim at looking for viruses in the fungus Hymenoscyphus fraxineus, the causal agent of ash dieback in Europe. The idea behind this is to test if such viruses (if present) could be used for the biological control of the pathogen (as in the chestnut blight fungus Cryphonectria parasitica). For this study, we screen native populations of H. fraxineus in which chances to find viruses are highest. We currently have three populations from Japan, but it would be great if we could test additional populations from the native range of the species, in particular China, Korea and East Russia.

Would you have Asian isolates of H. fraxineus to share with us or do you know somebody else who may have such isolates?

Sorry for bothering you with this and many thanks in advance for your help!

Kind regards

Simone Prospero