The clubroot pathogen: a master manipulator of plant immunity?

自2020年以来，由于NSERC通过发现计划的支持，以及油菜(Brassica Napus)种植者协会的支持，我们位于拉瓦尔大学(UniversityéLaval)的实验室(EdelLab)正在努力了解根瘤病抗性的分子基础，以及根瘤病病原菌如何感染敏感寄主。根瘤病是侵染十字花科植物根部的一种毁灭性病害，在全球范围内造成10-15%的减产，在过去的10年里给加拿大油菜业造成了超过5亿美元的损失。这种疾病是由油菜疟原虫引起的，这是一种专性的细胞内生物营养植物病原体，属于真核生物超类群根霉中的植霉类，是真核生物中研究最少的类群之一。加拿大的根瘤病管理在很大程度上依赖于抗根瘤病品种的使用。不幸的是，多年来，新的甘蓝型油菜根瘤病病原菌迅速克服了这种抗性，但由于人们对根瘤病抗性基因的识别或介导抗性的机制知之甚少，以及根瘤病病原菌如何抑制敏感寄主的植物免疫，这种情况变得更加严重。这一国际合作的主要目标是促进我们在油菜和拟南芥中鉴定可能的根肿病抗性基因的努力，以便进一步验证和鉴定。这将通过使用抗性基因浓缩测序(RenSeq)、全基因组关联研究(GWAS)和基于CRISPR-CAS9的反向遗传学来解决，所有这些技术都是众所周知的，并在荷兰利登大学生物研究所的丁平涛博士领导的DingLab中建立。这一合作将有助于培训两名博士生，并将确保加拿大十字花科行业更稳定和更强大的抗丛枝病能力。

Since 2020, thanks to the support of the NSERC through the Discovery Program, as well as the support of canola (Brassica napus) grower's associations, our Lab (EdelLab) at Université Laval (UL) is trying to understand the molecular basis of the clubroot resistance and how the clubroot pathogen can infect susceptible hosts. Clubroot is a devastating disease infecting roots of plants in the Brassicaceae family and responsible for 10-15% yield reduction on a global scale, and more than $ 500 million in loses to the Canadian canola industry in the past 10 years. This disease is caused by Plasmodiophora brassicae, an obligate intracellular biotrophic plant pathogen that belongs to the class Phytomyxea within the eukaryote supergroup Rhizaria, one of the least studied groups of eukaryotes. Clubroot management in Canada relies heavily on the use of clubroot resistant varieties. Unfortunately, over the years, the resistance has been rapidly overcome by new pathotypes of P. brassicae, situation that is aggravated by the fact that very little is known about the identity of the clubroot resistant genes or the mechanisms mediating the resistance, and how the clubroot pathogen can suppress plant immunity in the susceptible host. The main objective of this international collaboration is to advance our efforts in identifying putative clubroot resistance genes in canola and Arabidopsis for further validation and characterization. This will be addressed through the use of resistance gene enrichment sequencing (RenSeq), genome-wide association studies (GWAS), and CRISPR-Cas9-based reverse genetics, all technologies well-known and established in DingLab lead by Dr. Pingtao Ding at the Institute of Biology Lieden, at Lieden University, Netherland. This collaboration will contribute to the training of two PhD students and will ensure the Canadian cruciferous industry more stable and robust clubroot resistance.