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

植物病害对许多农作物来说是一个巨大的问题，可能会造成大量的生态和经济破坏。在许多情况下，很难控制这些疾病，因为目前的治疗方法无效、昂贵或破坏环境。一种有希望的疾病控制途径是使用自然抑制病原体生长的细菌生防菌株，有重要证据表明细菌天然产物对抑制各种病原体至关重要。这与天然产品在医药(如抗生素)和农业(如杀虫剂)中所起的关键作用是一致的。该项目将调查一种新的假单胞菌天然产品家族，该家族是通过使用普通赤霉病的病原体抑制筛查发现的，普通赤霉病是一种影响土豆的重要经济细菌疾病。将对这些化合物进行结构表征，并确定它们的生物活性、调节和生物合成。该项目还将使用我们的基于基因组的筛选方法来识别有助于抑制其他植物疾病的天然产品，最终目的是开发可用于控制植物疾病的化合物或菌株。

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.