Bright field, phase contrast and epifluorescence microscopy for characterizing phenotypes of transgenic isolates of sclerotinia species

在加拿大和其他地方，植物健康是食品、纤维和环境可持续性的重要组成部分。植物病害是植物健康的重要组成部分，每年给农业、园艺和林业造成重大损失。大多数植物病原体是微生物，因此，显微镜被认为是植物病理学实验室的核心和关键设备。本申请中提出的显微镜将用于几个研究项目，重点是了解和发展植物病害的生物防治。真菌病毒的影响和作用机制以及它们如何影响它们的真菌宿主必须加以表征，以使它们成为疾病管理的有效程序。在以前的研究中已经确定了与真菌植物病原体毒性降低和生长衰弱相关的选定真菌病毒，目前的研究重点是确定这些病毒如何影响它们的真菌宿主。选定的病毒基因组片段对真菌宿主的遗传转化需要一个研究质量的显微镜来检测这些变化对这些微观真菌生长发育的影响。该提案将用具有增强的外延荧光照明和数码摄影功能的类似单元取代现有的过时的光学显微镜。重要的是，该显微镜的数码摄影系统与实验室的其他设备兼容。该显微镜将使高素质人员（HQP）能够继续当前资助和正在进行的研究和诊断活动，并扩展到需要更精确和技术应用的研究领域，例如观察真菌和植物组织在生长和感染期间的荧光染料和蛋白质（例如外视荧光）。

Plant health is an important component of food, fibre and environmental sustainability in Canada and elsewhere.  Plant diseases are an important component of plant health and result in significant losses in agriculture, horticulture and forestry every year. Most plant pathogens are microorganisms and, therefore, a microscope is considered a core and critical piece of equipment in a plant pathology laboratory.   The microscope proposed in this application will be used in several research projects focused on the understanding and development of biological controls for plant diseases.  The influence and mechanisms of action of fungal viruses and how they influence their fungal hosts must be characterized to enable their development as effective procedures for disease management.  Selected fungal viruses associated with reduced virulence and debilitated growth in fungal plant pathogens have been identified in previous studies, and current studies are focused on determining how these viruses affect their fungal hosts.  Genetic transformation of fungal hosts with selected fragments of the viral genome requires a research-quality microscope for detection of the influence of these changes on the growth and development of these microscopic fungi.   This proposal will replace an existing and out-dated light microscope with a comparable unit that has an enhanced feature for epi-fluorescence illumination and digital photography.  Importantly, the digital photography system with this microscope is compatible with other equipment in the laboratory.   This microscope will enable highly qualified personnel (HQP) to continue currently-funded and on-going research and diagnostic activities, and expand into research areas that require more precise and technical application, such as observing fluorescent dyes and proteins (e.g. epi-fluorescence) in fungal and plant tissues during growth and infection.