Did barley-associated fungi evolve core effectors with antimicrobial activity to target barley keystone microbes?

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Bart Thomma
• Subject Area: Organismic Interactions, Chemical Ecology and Microbiomes of Plant Systems
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 520490591

The recent functional characterization of multiple fungal effector proteins that display antimicrobial activity raises questions regarding the general occurrence and importance of such effectors for fungal fitness, lifestyle and host colonization. At this stage, the utilization of such antimicrobial effector proteins by phylogenetically diverse fungi with diverse lifestyles remains to be demonstrated. Our recently developed predictor annotates numerous candidate antimicrobials in fungal secretomes, an observation which now needs to be experimentally validated. Moreover, our analyses reveal that a considerable number of effector proteins with predicted antimicrobial activities show strong conservation across the fungal tree of life. The suspected ancient origins of proteinaceous antimicrobials, together with the demonstration that some play an essential role in host colonization through microbiota manipulation, suggests that fungal antimicrobial catalogs may be adapted to niches that these fungi colonize, and may contribute to efficient host colonization. In summary, the knowledge gap that we aim to fill concerns determining the importance of microbiota manipulation in fungal plant infection biology and furthermore, in fungal lifestyles.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• Subproject of: FOR 5682: Mechanisms of adaptation to the host niche in plant-colonizing fungi