I attended the 7th International Verticillium Conference, held in Greece from 6th-10th October, 1997. I was invited to present a keynote paper giving an overview of the propects for the use of genetically engineered crops for control of vascular wilt diseases. In addition I presented a paper describing experimental results obtained with transgenic cotton plants expressing either glucose oxidase or chitinase. These two presentations were submitted as papers for inclusion in the published Conference Proceedings. A detailed report on the scientific results presented at the meeeting is attached. This report will be circulated to colleagues via the Covert newsletter. O Various valuable contacts were renewed (with Jane Robb, University of Guelph; and Kathy Dobinson, Agriculture Canada) and new contacts made with opportunities for collaborative research emerging. I will collaborate with Richard Cooper (University of Bath) to investigate the role of sulphur in tolerance of cotton to Venicillium wilt and with Oen Huisman (University of California, Berkeley) to use fluorescent antibodies to study Verticillium infection of transgenic cotton. I may be able to obtain constructs for generation of Venicillium expressing green iluorescent protein from Mary Powelson (Oregon State University).