On the nature and regulation of the plant-fungal biotrophic interface

在植物感染过程中，许多病原真菌，包括毁灭性的水稻和小麦稻瘟病菌，可以长时间与活的宿主细胞密切接触。这种寄生（生物营养）生长阶段涉及真菌入侵菌丝周围的宿主植物膜的增生，形成界面区，在其上部署效应器并获得营养。尽管生物营养界面和相关的宿主感染的隔间的内在性质，界面膜的维护和建设的生物基础在很大程度上是未知的。这严重破坏了理解宿主-病原体相互作用的努力，并可能掩盖宿主抗性的新来源，以及确定限制广泛的植物疾病以及改善作物健康的新目标。该项目旨在通过表征M.在宿主植物细胞生长过程中不能适当维持生物营养界面功能或膜完整性的微生物。这有望揭示新的细胞，生化和遗传机制，水稻感染。这些结果可能揭示植物宿主-微生物相互作用的基本概念，这些概念可以用来了解如何促进有益的植物-真菌相互作用，同时减少对作物健康有害的相互作用。我们还希望这项工作将为学生的学习提供一个令人振奋的环境，这将激励代表性不足的学生考虑STEM职业生涯，成为下一代的科学家。根据我们最近的发现，我们的中心假设是，尽管包括植物和真菌膜，活体营养界面是真菌的结构与入侵真菌的代谢需求所决定的属性和动力学。在这里，我们试图测试我们的假设，利用新的突变株提供重要的新信息，生物营养界面的调节，动力学和功能。通过关注真菌过程所需的维持生物营养界面的完整性，并通过检查一些重要方面的功能的生物营养界面，所述的目标将使用正向和反向遗传学，多组学方法和活细胞成像，以了解真菌代谢过程如何主导植物真菌相互作用在活宿主细胞。这可能会导致新的作物保护策略的发展，针对分子途径是至关重要的真菌的生物营养生长，但不需要宿主细胞的正常功能，并可能揭示细胞生长的基本原则，和宿主-微生物界面的性质和调节。该教育目标将激励本科生在研究中脱颖而出，将允许研究生发展为导师和教师，并将为所有学生提供在STEM职业中脱颖而出的工具。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

During plant infection, many pathogenic fungi, including the devastating rice and wheat blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae, can grow in intimate contact with living host cells for extended periods of time. This parasitic (biotrophic) growth stage involves the accretion of host plant membranes around fungal invasive hyphae, forming interfacial zones across which effectors are deployed and nutrients are acquired. Despite the intrinsic nature of the biotrophic interface and associated compartments to host infection, the biological underpinnings of interfacial membrane maintenance and construction are largely unknown. This severely undermines efforts to understand the host-pathogen interaction and likely obscures novel sources of host resistance and the identification of new targets for limiting a broad range of plant diseases as well as improving crop health. This project seeks to address these knowledge gaps by characterizing mutant strains of M. oryzae that fail to properly maintain biotrophic interfacial function or membrane integrity during growth in host plant cells. This is expected to uncover novel cellular, biochemical, and genetic mechanisms governing rice infection. Results may shed light on fundamental concepts of plant host-microbe interactions that could be leveraged to understand how beneficial plant-fungal interactions might be promoted while those detrimental to crop health are diminished. We also expect that this work will provide an invigorating environment for student learning that will inspire underrepresented students to consider a STEM career and become the next generation of scientists.Based on our recent discoveries, our central hypothesis is that, despite comprising both plant and fungal membranes, biotrophic interfaces are fungal constructs with properties and dynamics dictated by the metabolic demands of the invading fungus. Here, we seek to test our hypothesis by leveraging novel mutant strains to provide important new information on biotrophic interfacial regulation, dynamics, and function. By focusing on fungal processes required for maintaining biotrophic interfacial integrity, and by examining some important aspects of the function of the biotrophic interface, the stated objectives will use forward and reverse genetics, multiomic approaches, and live-cell imaging to understand how fungal metabolic processes dominate the plant-fungal interaction in living host cells. This could lead to the development of novel crop protection strategies targeting molecular pathways that are critical for the biotrophic growth of the fungus but are not required for the normal function of the host cell, and could shed new light on both the basic principles of cell growth, and on the nature and regulation of host-microbe interfaces. The educational objective will inspire undergraduates to excel in research, will allow graduate students to develop as mentors and teachers, and will provide all students with the tools to excel in STEM careers.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.