Predatory protists: natural weapons for soil-borne pathogen control

该项目旨在了解捕食性原生生物和真菌病原体的相互作用机制，并开发利用原生生物抑制土传病原体的创新生物技术。通过直接捕食真菌病原体或激活对植物有益的细菌来对抗它们，土壤捕食性原生生物将被识别，培养和利用来改善疾病管理。该项目的预期成果将包括从机制上了解原生生物对病原体抑制的贡献，以及基于原生生物的创新疾病管理工具。该项目开发的新技术有可能使澳大利亚农业和土地管理受益。

This project aims to understand the mechanistic interactions of predatory protists and fungal pathogens and develop innovative biotechnologies using the protists to suppress soil-borne pathogens. By directly preying on fungal pathogens or activating plant-beneficial bacteria to combat them, the soil predatory protists will be identified, cultivated and utilised to improve disease management. Expected outcomes of this project will include a mechanistic understanding of the contribution of protists to pathogen suppression and an innovative, protist-based disease management tool. The novel technologies developed in this project have potentials to benefit Australian agriculture and land management.