Identification of host-specificity determinants of maize and sorghum head smut fungi

玉米丝黑穗病菌引起玉米和高粱的丝黑穗病，从而威胁到当今最重要的粮食和能源植物。该活体营养真菌存在于具有不同宿主特异性的两个品种中，其可以在玉米或高粱上形成孢子。真菌如何设法抑制或逃避宿主的免疫系统，或者为什么品种表现出不同的宿主特异性尚不清楚。自己的实验表明，宿主特异性毒力由几个真菌基因决定。在本研究中，我们希望通过对玉米丝黑穗病菌杂交后代的下一代基因型序列分析，来确定玉米丝黑穗病菌最重要的寄主特异性决定因子。亲本来源与宿主特异性相关的基因将通过候选基因缺失或交叉品种表达菌株的产生和毒力分析进行实验验证。这种方法允许目前未知的主机特异性因素的真菌，允许未来的玉米和高粱黑穗病防御机制的鉴定无偏见的鉴定。最终，这些知识将有助于培育抗黑穗病的玉米和高粱品系，以改善粮食和能源生产。

Sporisorium reilianum causes head smut of maize and sorghum and thus threatens today's most important food and energy plants. The biotrophic fungus exists in two varieties with different host specificity that can either form spores on maize or on sorghum. How the fungus manages to suppress or evade the host's immune system or why the varieties show different host specificity is unknown. Own experiments have shown that host-specific virulence is determined by several fungal genes. In this project, we want to identify the most important host specificity determinants of Sporisorium reilianum by Next-Generation genotypic sequence analysis of meiotic cross-variety offspring. Genes whose parental origin correlates with host specificity will be experimentally verified by generation and virulence analysis of candidate gene deletion- or cross variety expression-strains. This method allows the unbiased identification of currently unknown host specificity factors of the fungus, which permits the future identification of maize and sorghum smut defense mechanisms. Ultimately, this knowledge will allow generating smut-resistant maize and sorghum lines for improved food and energy production.