Deciphering the role of microRNAs during pathogen attack: new concepts for disease resistance in plants

被称为“微rna”的小非编码rna调节植物中的多种途径，包括植物对病原体的防御。本项目将研究植物microrna在应对四种重要的经济病毒中的作用，并将它们与细菌和真菌病原体进行比较。目的是剖析病原体感染过程中基于microrna的基因调控的潜在分子机制，并特异性鉴定在病毒攻击过程中有明显影响的常见microrna。这项研究至关重要，因为它的重点是对许多作物植物造成严重损害的病毒病；这是一个对粮食安全有重大影响的全球性问题。该项目有望为植物抗病研究提供基本的新概念。

Small non-coding RNAs called ‘microRNAs’ regulate diverse pathways in plants including plant defence against pathogens. This project will investigate the roles of plant microRNAs in response to four economically important viruses and compare these to a bacterial and a fungal pathogen. The aim is to dissect the underlying molecular mechanism of microRNA-based gene regulation during pathogen infection and specifically identify common microRNAs which have evident impact during virus attack. This study is crucial due to its focus on virus diseases that cause severe damage to many crop plants; a global issue with strong implications for food security. This project is expected to provide basic new concepts for disease resistance in plants.