Developing phage therapy to reduce plant pathogen virulence

开发噬菌体疗法以降低植物病原体毒力

• 批准号: 2752148
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of York
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2752148
• 关键词: Developing; phage; therapy; reduce; plant

Plant pathogenic bacteria cause considerable losses to food production. This project will develop a novel biocontrol approach to reduce the virulence of plant pathogenic Ralstonia solanacearum bacterium (causative agent of bacterial wilt) using phages - viral parasites of the pathogen. It builds upon previous work (Wang et al. 2019 Nature Biotechnology), where the phage efficacy was found to be based not only on pathogen density reduction but also on evolutionary trade-offs that made phage-resistant mutants less pathogenic. The key aim of this project is to mechanistically understand how phage resistance turns pathogens less virulent.You will use experimental evolution to create a library of phage-resistant mutants and use sequencing to determine genes linked with phage resistance. Genome scale models developed with https://imean-biotech.com/ will be used to predict the effects of phage resistance mutations on pathogen fitness. Model predictions will be tested experimentally in plant rhizosphere microcosms focusing on:1. Pathogen metabolic versatility and competitiveness, which are crucial traits in determining pathogen establishment in soil microbiomes.2. Pathogen ability to compete for space to colonize roots, which is essential for getting access inside the plant.3. Pathogen ability to evade pattern-triggered or effector-triggered plant immunity within the plant.This interdisciplinary project will provide a wide range of skills in experimental evolution, genomics, transcriptomics, microscopy, microbiology and plant biology, and will take advantage of pathogen-tomato plant system established in Friman and Harper labs. You will also interact with researchers at Fera Science, which is and international centre of excellence for crop protection and sustainable agriculture

植物致病菌对粮食生产造成相当大的损失。本项目将开发一种新的生物防治方法来降低植物致病性枯枯菌（青枯病的病原体）的毒力。它建立在以前的工作基础上（Wang等人，2019自然生物技术），其中发现噬菌体功效不仅基于病原体密度的降低，还基于使噬菌体抗性突变体致病性降低的进化权衡。该项目的主要目的是从机制上了解噬菌体耐药性如何使病原体毒性降低。您将使用实验进化来创建一个噬菌体抗性突变体库，并使用测序来确定与噬菌体抗性相关的基因。利用https://imean-biotech.com/开发的基因组规模模型将用于预测噬菌体抗性突变对病原体适应性的影响。模型预测将在植物根际微观环境中进行实验测试，重点是：1。病原菌代谢多样性和竞争力是决定病原菌在土壤微生物群中建立的关键特征。病原体争夺空间在根上定居的能力，这对进入植物内部至关重要。病原体在植物内逃避模式触发或效应触发的植物免疫的能力。该跨学科项目将提供实验进化、基因组学、转录组学、显微镜学、微生物学和植物生物学等方面的广泛技能，并将利用Friman和Harper实验室建立的病原体-番茄植物系统。您还将与Fera Science的研究人员进行互动，Fera Science是国际作物保护和可持续农业卓越中心