KSEF RDE: Exploring a Novel Mechanism for Pathogenic Adaptation in Fungi

Grants and Contracts Details

Description

Fungal pathogens are major constraints to global agricultural production. The most effective, economical and ecologically sound method for controlling fungal plant diseases is to use resistant plant germplasm. Unfortunately, however, fungi have an uncanny ability to defeat host resistance, causing resistant cultivars rapidly to lose their efficacy. Consequently, one has continually to identify new sources of resistance to keep diseases at bay. A key hurdle in the quest for durable plant disease resistance is that fungal pathogenic variability remains poorly understood. My lab studies the fungus Magnaporthe oryzae, a devastating pathogen of cereal crops, forage grasses and turf; and the primary model for studying fungal:plant interactions. Work from our lab and others has shown that fungi can defeat host resistance by mutating or losing genes that code for secreted proteins that would normally be recognized by the host plant and trigger a host defense response. Recent studies in my lab suggest that fungal pathogens may use additional strategies to subvert the host’s surveillance system. Specifically, our data indicate that fungal genes coding for secreted proteins are differentially expressed in different infection sites on a single rice leaf. We hypothesize that this is an adaptive strategy and is widely used by fungal pathogens to avoid host recognition and, hence, increase the probability of successful infection. If true, this would establish a new paradigm for fungal-host interactions and would provide new opportunities for combating plant diseases caused by fungi. Indeed, it may alter completely the way we breed plants for resistance to fungal pathogens. The specific objective of the project will be to test the above hypothesis using molecular genetic and cytological approaches to examine the expression of fungal proteins that trigger defenses responses in plants.
StatusFinished
Effective start/end date7/1/146/30/16

Funding

  • KY Science and Technology Co Inc: $30,000.00

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