由禾谷镰刀菌引起的赤霉病是小麦、大麦等粮食作物上的毁灭性病害，它不仅直接导致严重的产量损失，而且被侵染的谷粒会产生大量对人畜有害的真菌毒素，如脱氧雪腐镰刀菌烯醇和玉米烯酮。对“禾谷镰刀菌-植物”互作过程中的关键因子（效应子）及其功能了解的不足，严重制约了病菌防治和优良抗病种质的设计和选育。我们利用生物信息学分析鉴定出53个禾谷镰刀菌特有的候选分泌蛋白，并通过基因敲除技术得到了所有基因的敲除突变体，鉴定出两个在植物侵染时期强烈表达并与致病力相关的候选效应蛋白：Sup2和Sup4。本研究将对这两个候选效应子在侵染寄主过程中的功能进行深入探索，明确它们在侵染过程中的分泌、运输及定位过程，通过定点突变找出调控其功能和定位的蛋白区段和氨基酸残基，并进一步筛选出与其互作的小麦靶蛋白，分析互作机制。研究结果将会阐明效应子在真菌-植物互作中的作用机理，为赤霉病防治和抗病种质设计选育打下理论基础.

Fusarium head blight (FHB) caused by Fusarium graminearum is a destructive disease of wheat and barley worldwide。Under favorable conditions, this pathogen can cause severe yield losses and contaminate infested grains with harmful mycotoxins such as deoxynivalenol (DON) and zearalenones. Lake of understanding of effectors generated during plant-fungal interaction severely restricted the disease control and germplasms breeding. We identified 53 unique genes encoding secreted proteins in the genome of F. graminearum, and generated all the deletion mutants. Among them, two candidate effector proteins named Sup2 and Sup4 were found to be important for plant infection and had high expression levels during early infection stages. In this study, we will deeply characterized the function of the effectors during plant infection. Live-cell imaging technology will be used to detect the secretion, translocation and localization of effector proteins. The function control sequences or amino acid sites of candidate effectors will be also examined by site-directed mutagenesis. Furthermore, the wheat proteins interacted with candidate effectors will be identified by yeast two-hybrid assays and affinity purification technology. Results from this study will be conducive to elucidate the function mechanism of effectors during the plant-fungal interaction and establish theory foundation for breed germplasm with disease-resistant and FHB disease control.