Shapeshifting: how is plant ER architecture manipulated by pathogen effectors?

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The world population is predicted to reach 9.7 billion by 2050, compared to today's 7.9 billion. More food needs to be produced from ever-dwindling natural resources with the additional challenges arising from climate change. The UK imports 45% of all its food and so future food security is both a global and a national issue that needs urgently addressing. One key approach is to reduce waste in the food chain. Between 17-30% of global crops are lost to pests and disease both pre- and post-harvest. The big challenge is therefore to breed crops with enhanced tolerance to plant pathogens (disease-causing microorganisms) but, crucially, without adversely compromising yield.The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is a major protein and lipid factory present in every plant cell. It forms a mesh-like network of membrane tubules and sheets, which extends throughout the cell and between nearby cells and is constantly reshaping and reorganising to meet the cells' changing demand for proteins. We have recently discovered that when a harmful bacterial pathogen infects plant leaves, it causes a dramatic and rapid reorganisation of the plant ER, which seems to weaken the ER's capacity to participate in the cellular defence and therefore helps the pathogen invade. Our project will establish precisely how particular molecules produced by the pathogen, called 'effectors', remodel the ER architecture, and which specific effectors participate in this process. We aim to use this information, together with a toolkit of ER-shaping proteins that we have produced and studied over the last 10 years, in order to re-engineer the plant's ER into a bespoke form that is better suited to withstand pathogen attack. Success will represent a substantial impact on reducing crop losses and thus increasing our food security.