Discovery of natural products that are critical for controlling plant pathogens (TRUMAN_J17DTP)

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Plant diseases are a huge problem for many crops, and can cause a vast amount of ecological and economic damage. In many cases, it is difficult to control these diseases as current treatments are ineffective, expensive or environmentally damaging. A promising route to disease control is the use of bacterial biocontrol strains that naturally inhibit pathogen growth, and there is significant evidence to show that bacterial natural products are critical for the suppression of various pathogens. This is consistent with the crucial role that natural products have across medicine (e.g. antibiotics) and agriculture (e.g. insecticides).This project will investigate a novel family of Pseudomonas natural products that were discovered using a pathogen suppression screen using common scab, an economically important bacterial disease that affects potatoes. These compounds will be structurally characterised, and their bioactivities, regulation and biosynthesis will be determined. The project will also employ our genome-based screening approach to identify natural products that contribute to the suppression of other plant diseases, with the ultimate aim of developing compounds or strains that can be used to control plant disease.