Fungal pathogens attack and self defence: Mechanisms to counteract microbial antagonism and plant defences

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The processes that determine the outcome of an interaction between a fungal pathogen and its host, be it a plant or a microbe, are complex. My research program focuses on understanding how pathogens respond to the host's defense strategies and how they manipulate its metabolism to their advantage. The long-term objectives are to unravel the complex mechanisms employed by fungi to infect their plant hosts or to overcome attack by other fungi. In this Discovery grant, the short-term objectives are to develop a comprehensive platform for transcriptomic, proteomic, and metabolomic profiling using gene array measurements and mass spectrometry, for the characterization of transcript, protein, and metabolite level changes that can be targeted to decrease the negative impacts of diseases. This platform will be used to monitor global molecular changes in response to biotic stresses, and to map networks that define connectivity in function between gene expression, proteins, and metabolites for the fungal pathogen R. solani during interaction with potato sprouts (pathosystem 1) and with the mycoparasite S. elegans (pathosystem 2). The findings will lay the foundation for innovative knowledge-based approaches for plant disease management strategies. The discovery of biomarkers is expected to have an impact on the field of biological control and enable us to develop novel strategies to enhance plant disease tolerance. The knowledge on high-throughput metabolomics combined with biometrics and integration with other 'omics' approaches will provide solid expertise for application to metabolite discovery and network construction. Our aim is to elucidate key biochemical mechanisms that regulate pathogenicity. Collectively, such knowledge could be exploited in research dealing with biotechnology such as genetic engineering and/or biomarker-assisted plant breeding.