Do G-protein coupled receptors regulate pathogenesis and mycotoxin biosynthesis in filamentous phytopathogenic fungi?

G-蛋白偶联受体是否调节丝状植物病原真菌的致病和毒素生物合成？真菌病原体不断侵袭农作物并引起重大疾病。为了引起疾病，一些真菌病原体分泌对植物和人类都有毒的化学物质。因此，真菌病害降低了农民的作物产量和利润，同时威胁着人类健康。当真菌病原体落在植物上时，它会感知周围环境，并决定这个位置是否适合感染。真菌如何通过外部受体感知环境的“触觉和味道”在很大程度上是未知的。这些受体及其对环境的感知被认为控制真菌病原体如何引起疾病以及是否产生毒素。因此，我们计划确定真菌受体所需的疾病在谷物病原体和毒素生产者，禾谷镰刀菌。在Rothamsted Research，我们将创建一个缺少不同受体的突变真菌集合。在专门的防护设施中，我们将测试这些受体的丢失是否会降低F。禾谷镰刀菌在小麦中引起疾病并产生毒素。通过比较小麦感染过程中真菌基因的表达，将确定这些受体控制的是什么。荧光蛋白和先进的显微镜将被用来观察这些受体在检测到植物宿主时是如何被激活的，以及它们是如何与真菌内的其他蛋白质相互作用以控制疾病的。这些研究将提供对真菌病原体如何调节疾病和毒素产生以响应其环境的“触摸和味道”的理解。这些新知识和最先进的技术将被转移到植物和人类的其他真菌病原体。大约40%的现代药物靶向类似的受体。因此，鉴定疾病所需的真菌受体将代表对抗真菌病原体、改善安全食品生产和保护人类健康的新的可药用靶标。

DO G-PROTEIN COUPLED RECEPTORS REGULATE PATHOGENESIS AND MYCOTOXIN BIOSYNTHESIS IN FILAMENTOUS PHYTOPATHOGENIC FUNGI?Fungal pathogens constantly attack crop plants and cause major diseases. In order to cause disease, some fungal pathogens secrete chemicals that are toxic to both plants and humans. Therefore, fungal diseases reduce a farmer's crop production and profit, while threatening human health. When a fungal pathogen lands on a plant, it senses the surrounding and decides whether this location is suitable for infection. How fungi sense the "touch and taste" of their environment through external receptors is largely unknown. These receptors, and their sensing of the environment, are thought to control how a fungal pathogen causes disease and whether it produces toxins. Therefore, we plan to identify fungal receptors that are required for disease in the cereal pathogen, and toxin producer, Fusarium graminearum. At Rothamsted Research, we will create a collection of mutated fungi missing different receptors. Within specialised containment facilities, we will test if the loss of these receptors reduces the ability of F. graminearum to cause disease and produce toxins in wheat. What is controlled by these receptors will be identified by comparing the expression of fungal genes during wheat infection. Fluorescent proteins and cutting-edge microscopy will be used to visualise how these receptors are activated upon detection of the plant host and how they interact with other proteins within the fungus to control disease.These studies will provide an understanding of how fungal pathogens regulate disease and toxin production in response the "touch and taste" of their environment. This new knowledge, and the state-of-the-art techniques developed, will be transferable to other fungal pathogens of plants and humans. Approximately 40% of modern pharmaceuticals target similar receptors. Therefore, the identification of fungal receptors needed for disease would represent novel drugable targets to combat a fungal pathogen, improving safe food production and protecting human health.