Dissertation Research: Do Virulence Costs Help Maintain Avr Genes in Plant Pathogen Populations?

论文研究：毒力成本是否有助于维持植物病原体种群中的 Avr 基因？

• 批准号: 0107219
• 负责人: Joy Bergelson
• 金额: $ 0.99万
• 依托单位: University of Chicago
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2001
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2001-07-15 至 2003-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0107219&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Dissertation; Research; Do; Virulence; Costs

0107219BergelsonPlants can recognize gene products produced by pathogens, and this recognition triggers a strong defensive response that severely limits the pathogen's growth in the plant. An important question in the area of plant disease, is "Why do pathogens carry genes which ultimately trigger a defense response against them"? In this Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant, the researchers propose to look for benefits associated with the pathogen genes that elicit plant defenses. They propose to take a plant pathogenic bacteria and remove several of the elicitor genes, and then compare the performance of the original strains (which have all the genes) to the mutant strain (which possesses a subset of the genes). The researchers will investigate several factors including disease pathology, epidemiology, and survival, under both greenhouse and natural field conditions. Agriculture and the plant biotechnology industry are very interested in pathogen defense elicitor genes. It is now possible to engineer plants to express new resistance genes that recognize the elicitor genes of common plant pathogens. Before such a strategy is attempted, it would be valuable to understand how the elicitor genes function and are maintained in pathogen populations. If elicitor genes can be removed with little or no fitness cost to the pathogens, then a biotechnology strategy that depends on the expression of elicitor genes can easily fail.

伯格森植物可以识别病原体产生的基因产物，这种识别触发了强烈的防御反应，严重限制了病原体在植物中的生长。植物病害领域的一个重要问题是“为什么病原体携带的基因最终会触发对它们的防御反应”？在这篇博士论文《改良格兰特》中，研究人员提议寻找与引起植物防御的病原体基因相关的益处。他们建议取一种植物病原菌，移除几个激发子基因，然后比较原始菌株(拥有所有基因)和突变菌株(拥有部分基因)的表现。研究人员将在温室和自然条件下调查几个因素，包括疾病病理学、流行病学和存活率。农业和植物生物技术行业对病原菌防御激发子基因非常感兴趣。现在有可能改造植物来表达新的抗性基因，这些基因可以识别常见植物病原体的激发子基因。在尝试这样的策略之前，了解激发子基因是如何在病原菌群体中发挥作用和维持的是有价值的。如果激发子基因可以被移除，而病原体的适合性成本很低或没有成本，那么依赖激发子基因表达的生物技术策略很容易失败。