Investigating the role of the Sln1 turgor sensor kinase in the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae

稻瘟病是一种危害全世界水稻种植的毁灭性病害。稻瘟病是由一种名为稻瘟病菌（Magnaporthe oryzae）的真菌引起的，该项目旨在研究这种真菌感染水稻所需的机制。稻瘟病菌产生一种特殊的感染结构，称为附着胞，这是一个圆顶状的细胞，可以产生高达8MPa的巨大压力（或汽车轮胎压力的40倍）。这种压力作为物理力量在叶片表面刺穿植物角质层。这种显著的感染过程使真菌能够致病。我们的目标是研究附着胞内产生的巨大压力如何在感染细胞的底部转化为物理力量。我们已经确定了一种叫做Sln1的传感蛋白，它是感染细胞调节肿胀压力所必需的。没有这种蛋白质，附着胞就会在压力下继续膨胀，但无法产生物理力量，无法形成水稻叶片。在本项目中，我们将研究Sln1在稻瘟病菌中的作用。我们将研究Sln1在附着胞发育过程中是如何被激活的。我们将确定与Sln1物理相互作用并因此可能有助于其功能的蛋白质，我们将研究可能被Sln1活性激活或功能抑制的蛋白质。通过这种方式，我们的目标是定义由Sln1调节的暴胀感测网络，并了解附着胞的功能。这项研究可能会导致新的疾病控制策略的发展，这些策略的重点是防止真菌病原体，如blast真菌，能够进入植物组织。

Rice blast is a devastating disease which affects rice cultivation all over the world. Blast is caused by a fungus called Magnaporthe oryzae and this project aims to investigate mechanisms required by the fungus to infect rice plants. The rice blast fungus produces a specialised infection structure called an appressorium, which is a dome-shaped cell that can generate enormous pressure of up to 8MPa (or 40 times the pressure of a car tyre). This pressure is applied as physical force at the leaf surface to puncture the plant cuticle. This remarkable infection process enables the fungus to cause disease.We aim to investigate how the enormous pressure generated inside the appressorium is translated into physical force at the base of the infection cell. We have identified a sensor protein called Sln1, which is necessary for the infection cell to regulate turgor pressure. Without this protein, the appressorium continues to expand under pressure, but cannot generate physical force and break its way into a rice leaf. In this project we will investigate how Sln1 functions in the rice blast fungus. We will investigate how Sln1 is activated during appressorium development. We will identify proteins that physically interact with Sln1 and may therefore contribute to its function, and we will study the proteins that are likely to be activated, or repressed in function by the activity of Sln1. In this way, we aim to define the turgor-sensing network that is regulated by Sln1 and understand how the appressorium functions. This research may lead to the development of new and novel disease control strategies that are focused on preventing fungal pathogens, like the blast fungus, from being able to gain entry to plant tissue.