Project Details
Projekt
FOR 666: Mechanisms of Compatibility: Reprogramming of Plant Metabolism by Fungal Effector Molecules
Subject Area
Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine
Biology
Biology
Term
from 2006 to 2012
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 15847441
The disadvantageous environmental side-effects of intensified agriculture are evident, for example, in irreversible damage of arable farmland, reduced biodiversity or pollution and eutrophication of fresh water resources. Despite the improved measures taken to protect crops from diseases and pests, the rising total crop production is accompanied by continuously increasing yield loss rates. One solution for these problems is to improve crop production strategies, to make them more reliable for the producer, and safe for consumers and the environment. A key strategy to achieve this aim is to increase the knowledge of the interaction of crop plants with pathogens, which are able to redirect plant metabolism for their own development and reproduction. By elucidating the mechanisms of disease development and the molecular networks involved in plant susceptibility and metabolic reprogramming, key processes might be identified that can be applied to generate improved crop plants.
We focus on the agronomically important cereal crops, barley and maize, and their interactions with a set of fungi representing diverse sets of life styles: the biotrophic pathogens Blumeria graminis and Ustilago maydis, the hemibiotrophic fungus Colletotrichum graminicola and the mutualistic fungus Piriformospora indica. We will use state-of-the-art gene expression profiling using Affymetrix Gene Chips in parallel with a metabolomics approach and combine data sets in a bioinformatics group set up for this purpose. By addressing the molecular mechanisms of compatibility in interactions of cereal crop plants with the above-mentioned pathogens and symbionts, we expect to obtain new insights into "metabolic reprogramming" that results in successful microbial development by redirecting source-sink-relationships.
It is our basic hypothesis that this process is driven and guarded at the same time by plant and microbial factors. Key elements in metabolic reprogramming exhibit properties which might be predestined as new targets for plant protection products. Moreover, these elements are expected to be involved in primary metabolism and, hence, might be key players for yield improvements.
We focus on the agronomically important cereal crops, barley and maize, and their interactions with a set of fungi representing diverse sets of life styles: the biotrophic pathogens Blumeria graminis and Ustilago maydis, the hemibiotrophic fungus Colletotrichum graminicola and the mutualistic fungus Piriformospora indica. We will use state-of-the-art gene expression profiling using Affymetrix Gene Chips in parallel with a metabolomics approach and combine data sets in a bioinformatics group set up for this purpose. By addressing the molecular mechanisms of compatibility in interactions of cereal crop plants with the above-mentioned pathogens and symbionts, we expect to obtain new insights into "metabolic reprogramming" that results in successful microbial development by redirecting source-sink-relationships.
It is our basic hypothesis that this process is driven and guarded at the same time by plant and microbial factors. Key elements in metabolic reprogramming exhibit properties which might be predestined as new targets for plant protection products. Moreover, these elements are expected to be involved in primary metabolism and, hence, might be key players for yield improvements.
DFG Programme
Research Units
Projects
- Barley compatibility factors pivotal for root colonisation and manipulation of basal defence by Piriformospora indica (Applicants Kogel, Karl-Heinz ; Schäfer, Patrick )
- Carbon acquisition during pathogenic development of Ustilago maydis and Colletotrichum graminicola (Applicants Kämper, Jörg ; Sauer, Norbert )
- Establishment of cell-specifically inducible expression systems in transgenic barley and maize (Applicant Kumlehn, Jochen )
- Identification of genes of Colletotrichum graminicola involved in establishment and maintenance of compatibility (Applicant Deising, Holger B. )
- Interactive signal transfer in the leaf apoplast between host and pathogen during successful infection (Applicant Felle, Hubert Heinrich )
- Metabolic determinants in the interaction of biotrophic and hemibiotrophic fungi with cereals (Applicant Sonnewald, Uwe )
- Redirection of photoassimilate partitioning by biotrophic, hemibiotrophic and mutualistic fungi through altered transporter gene expression (Applicant Sauer, Norbert )
- Systemic phloem signals for compatibility or defence in response to fungal infections in Zea mays and Hordeum vulgare (Applicant van Bel, Aart J.E. )
- The early infection phase of Ustilago maydis: adaption to the plant environment (Applicant Döhlemann, Gunther )
- The role of calcium signalling in the establishment of compatible Colletotrichum graminicola interactions (Applicant Peiter, Edgar )
- The role of RBOH-type NADPH oxidases in compatibility of barley with fungal organisms (Applicant Hückelhoven, Ralph )
- Towards dissecting mechanisms of compatibility in plants and fungi; a systemsbiology approach combining transcriptome and metabolome data (Applicants Frisch, Matthias ; Kogel, Karl-Heinz )
Spokesperson
Professor Dr. Karl-Heinz Kogel
