Collaborative Research: Investigating the development and treatment of plant diseases caused by the bacterium Xylella fastidiosa using theoretical and experimental methods

合作研究：利用理论和实验方法研究由木杆菌引起的植物病害的发展和治疗

• 批准号: 1122378
• 负责人: Nicholas Cogan
• 金额: $ 28.38万
• 依托单位: Florida State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-10-01 至 2015-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1122378&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Investigating; development; treatment

Xylella fastidiosa (Xf) is a bacterium that causes devastating plant diseases in crops such as grapes, citrus, peaches and blueberries. The goal of this project is to understand the progression and treatment of xylem fouling by bacterial biofilms formed by the plant pathogen Xf using tightly coupled theoretical and experimental techniques. The core mathematical model developed for the project uses a multiphase approach that is a flexible framework accounting for the complex interactions occurring during the disease progression. Multiphase modeling is a natural framework to account for the dramatic variation in scales (from the bacterial scale to the channel length scale). The transfer of material from free-swimming bacteria to biofilm-bound bacteria and the production of biomass (bacteria and extra-cellular polymeric 'glue') requires a distinction between the types of material within the system. Finally, multiphase models are essentially statements of conservation laws providing a relatively simple method for incorporating physical and chemical processes. Experimentally, the use of microfluidics for studies of specific behaviors of bacterial cells is recognized as a useful tool for new discoveries. Studies on single bacterial cells under controlled conditions are leading to new understandings of bacterial growth and relationship with the. Microfluidic chambers have been developed by De La Fuente's lab as a new technological approach to study the infection process of vascular plant bacterial pathogens.The particular objectives are to determine whether the dominant symptoms of the plant infection, such as leaf scorch, are due to reduced water flux caused by occlusion of the water transport network by the biofilm or whether active plant responses are also implicated. Further, the investigation will focus on non-destructive methods of treatment of the disease. These two objectives provide fundamental insight into the disease process and treatment. The collaboration between the theoretical (mathematics) and experimental (biological) methods are used to validate the mathematical theory and suggest new avenues of disease treatment. The project initially uses experimental data to validate the theoretical modeling. In turn, the modeling and analysis is used to test various hypotheses on the disease development (e.g. occlusion versus plant responses) that are difficult to test in the laboratory. In addition, the theoretical predictions point to particular experimental designs (e.g. treatment regimes) that may provide valuable insight into non-destructive disease treatment.

顶端木霉是一种在葡萄、柑橘、桃子和蓝莓等作物上引起毁灭性植物病害的细菌。本项目的目的是利用紧密耦合的理论和实验技术，了解由植物病原菌XF形成的细菌生物膜对木质部污染的进展和治疗。为该项目开发的核心数学模型使用多阶段方法，这是一个灵活的框架，考虑到在疾病发展过程中发生的复杂相互作用。多阶段建模是一个自然的框架，可以解释尺度(从细菌尺度到通道长度尺度)的巨大变化。将物质从自由游动的细菌转移到生物膜结合的细菌和生产生物质(细菌和胞外聚合物“胶”)需要区分系统内的材料类型。最后，多相模型本质上是守恒定律的声明，为结合物理和化学过程提供了一种相对简单的方法。在实验上，使用微流体研究细菌细胞的特定行为被认为是新发现的有用工具。在可控条件下对单个细菌细胞的研究有助于对细菌生长及其与细菌关系的新理解。微流体室是De La Fuente的实验室开发的一种新的技术手段，用于研究维管植物细菌病原体的感染过程。其具体目的是确定植物感染的主要症状，如叶片焦烧，是由于生物膜堵塞水分运输网络而导致的水通量减少，还是与植物活跃的反应有关。此外，调查的重点将是非破坏性的疾病治疗方法。这两个目标提供了对疾病过程和治疗的基本洞察。理论(数学)和实验(生物学)方法之间的协作被用来验证数学理论并提出疾病治疗的新途径。该项目最初使用实验数据来验证理论建模。反过来，建模和分析被用来测试关于疾病发展的各种假说(例如，遮挡与植物反应)，这些假说在实验室很难检验。此外，理论预测指出了特定的实验设计(例如，治疗方案)，这可能为非破坏性疾病的治疗提供有价值的见解。