Modulation of host defense responses by Agrobacterium tumefaciens Type VI secretion system

VI 型农杆菌分泌系统对宿主防御反应的调节

• 批准号: 0919638
• 负责人: Lois Banta
• 金额: $ 41.53万
• 依托单位: Williams College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-09-01 至 2012-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0919638&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Modulation; host; defense; responses; Agrobacterium

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Bacteria frequently cause disease in plants or animals by using secretion systems to deliver protein or DNA factors that manipulate normal host cell functions and/or subvert host defenses. The soil bacterium Agrobacterium tumefaciens transports both protein and DNA into a variety of plants, resulting in tumors or "plant cancer" on infected plants. The investigators recently discovered that Agrobacteria lacking one such secretion system, the Type VI Secretion System (T6SS), are compromised in their ability to cause tumors compared to normal bacteria. The goal of this project is to determine how the factors delivered through the Agrobacterium T6SS alter or dampen the host plants? defenses. The investigators will measure the amount of specific defense compounds produced by the plant, and will monitor the extent to which the plants turn on defense-related genes in response to the normal or the T6SS-deficient bacteria. The results will reveal new information about how plants protect themselves from diseases such as plant cancer. Because similar T6SS have recently been found in a wide variety of other bacteria, including several that cause serious diseases in humans, the findings may well have relevance to these other infectious agents as well. In addition to its role in causing plant disease, Agrobacterium is widely used to introduce new genes into plants, but its utility is limited by the fact that some plants, including many economically important grain crops, are poor hosts. This project will yield new insights into the factors that make some plant species better able to resist Agrobacteria. The project fully integrates research and education, in that the experiments will be performed primarily by undergraduate students, thereby providing them with the opportunity to take a leadership role in cutting-edge research.

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。细菌经常通过使用分泌系统传递蛋白质或DNA因子来操纵正常宿主细胞功能和/或破坏宿主防御，从而在植物或动物中引起疾病。 土壤细菌根癌农杆菌将蛋白质和DNA都转运到各种植物中，导致受感染植物上的肿瘤或“植物癌”。 研究人员最近发现，与正常细菌相比，缺乏一种这样的分泌系统，即VI型分泌系统（T6 SS）的农杆菌在引起肿瘤的能力方面受到损害。 本项目的目标是确定通过农杆菌T6 SS传递的因子如何改变或抑制宿主植物？的防御合作.研究人员将测量植物产生的特定防御化合物的数量，并将监测植物在多大程度上打开防御相关基因以应对正常或T6 SS缺陷型细菌。 研究结果将揭示植物如何保护自己免受植物癌症等疾病的新信息。 由于最近在各种其他细菌中发现了类似的T6 SS，包括几种导致人类严重疾病的细菌，因此这些发现也可能与这些其他感染因子有关。 除了其在引起植物疾病中的作用之外，农杆菌还被广泛用于将新基因引入植物中，但其效用受到以下事实的限制：包括许多经济上重要的谷物作物在内的一些植物是不良宿主。该项目将产生新的见解的因素，使一些植物物种能够更好地抵抗农杆菌。 该项目充分整合了研究和教育，因为实验将主要由本科生进行，从而为他们提供在前沿研究中发挥领导作用的机会。