Project Details
Projekt
Mycorrhiza-driven mechanisms shaping the niche of pathogenic plant-interacting fungi
Applicant
Professorin Dr. Natalia Requena
Subject Area
Organismic Interactions, Chemical Ecology and Microbiomes of Plant Systems
Term
since 2024
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 520490591
Microbes living on plants often have to compete for space and resources to succeed in niche occupation and maintenance. In natural ecosystems, the most widespread fungal association with plants is the arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis with fungi from the Glomeromycotina subphylum. These mutualistic fungi provide plants with mineral nutrients in exchange for fixed carbon. Root colonization by AM fungi substantially reprograms plants in a systemic way, thus impacting on their microbiome. Mycorrhizal plants have often been shown to have a reduced susceptibility towards microbes occupying the same niche, in particular fungal and oomycete root pathogens. But also, to induce systemic defense responses thereby conferring increased resistance to the shoot bacterial pathogen Xanthomonas campestris, to the root bacterial pathogen Ralstonia solanacearum or to the fungal pathogens Botrytis cinerea, Alternaria solani or Magnaporthe oryzae. However, it is not clear how exactly AM fungi modulate the plant response to other microbes. Are there mycorrhizal fungal signals that shape the defense response of plants? We hypothesize, that similar to other plant colonizing microbes, AM fungi employ effector molecules to do that. These effectors might directly impact on the plant developmental/defense program which in turn has positive or negative consequences towards co-existing microbes. But it is also possible, that antagonistic responses might be exerted through antimicrobial effectors secreted by AM fungi that might change the microbial composition of the root favouring certain microbes over others. In this Research Unit we will investigate the mechanisms by which the AM fungus Rhizophagus irregularis modulate the niche adaptation of pathogenic co-infecting fungi in the model system barley.
DFG Programme
Research Units
