Functional Genomics of Early Events in Ectomycorrhizal Symbiosis: The Fungal Perspective"

外生菌根共生早期事件的功能基因组学：真菌透视外生菌根真菌定植根部，并与多种树种建立有益的关系。这些真菌延长了根系的吸收能力，提高了寄主植物耐受生物和环境胁迫的能力，并在营养缺乏的条件下支持植物的健康。在真菌与寄主之间建立物理联系之前，侵染前阶段所涉及的动态信号和串扰事件和基因决定了外生菌根联合形成的方向和最终的成功。PI的实验室已经鉴定了一个相互作用特异的和信号相关的LBRAS基因，还鉴定了编码外生菌根真菌Laccaria biolor的GTP酶和受体激酶的表达序列标签(EST)。PI将利用这些基因和酵母双杂交相互作用来表征这些基因，并开始解开参与双色乳杆菌外生菌根建立和维持的信号通路。该项目还包括开发新的工具，利用农杆菌介导法将基因转移到二色乳杆菌中，用于外生菌根共生的功能基因组研究。这项工作为本科生和博士后学生提供了教育和研究培训机会，以整合各种功能基因组方法，并开发工具来研究非常重要但未被充分研究的有益相互作用。

Functional Genomics of Early Events in Ectomycorrhizal Symbiosis: A fungal PerspectiveEctomycorrhizal fungi colonize roots and establish beneficial relationships with a wide variety of tree species. These fungi extend the absorptive capabilities of the root system, improve the host plant's abilities to tolerate biological and environmental stresses and support plant health under conditions of nutritional deficiency. The dynamic signaling and cross-talk events and genes involved during the pre-infection stage, before the physical contact is established between the fungus and the plant host, determine the direction and ultimate success of the formation of ectomycorrhizal association. The PI's lab has identified and well characterized an interaction-specific and signaling related LbRAS gene and also identified expressed sequence tags (ESTs) coding for GTPases and receptor kinases from the ectomycorrhizal fungus Laccaria bicolor. The PI will use these genes and yeast two-hybrid interactions to characterize the genes and begin to unravel signaling pathways involved in the establishment and maintenance of ectomycorrhiza by L. bicolor. This project also involves development of new tools for the functional genomic studies of ectomycorrhizal symbiosis using Agrobacterium-mediated gene transfer into L.bicolor. This work provides educational and research-training opportunities for both undergraduate and postdoctoral students to integrate various functional genomic approaches and develop tools to study a very important yet understudied beneficial interaction.