Do G-protein coupled receptors regulate pathogenesis and mycotoxin biosynthesis in filamentous phytopathogenic fungi?

G蛋白偶联受体是否调控丝状植生真菌的发病机制和真菌毒素的生物合成？真菌病原菌不断侵袭作物并引起重大病害。为了致病，一些真菌病原体会分泌对植物和人类都有毒的化学物质。因此，真菌病降低了农民的作物产量和利润，同时威胁着人类健康。当真菌病原体落在植物上时，它会感觉到周围的环境，并决定这个位置是否适合感染。真菌是如何通过外部感受器感知环境的“触觉和味道”的，这在很大程度上是未知的。这些受体及其对环境的感知被认为控制真菌病原体如何致病以及是否产生毒素。因此，我们计划确定谷物病原体和毒素产生者禾谷镰刀菌中致病所需的真菌受体。在Rothamsted Research，我们将创建一组缺失不同受体的突变真菌。在专门的控制设施内，我们将测试这些受体的丧失是否会降低禾谷镰刀菌在小麦中致病和产生毒素的能力。通过比较真菌基因在小麦侵染过程中的表达，可以确定这些受体控制的是什么。荧光蛋白和尖端显微镜将被用来直观地显示这些受体在检测到植物寄主后是如何被激活的，以及它们如何与真菌中的其他蛋白质相互作用以控制疾病。这些研究将提供对真菌病原体如何调节疾病和毒素产生的理解，以响应环境的“触摸和味道”。这一新知识和开发的最先进技术将可转移到植物和人类的其他真菌病原体上。大约40%的现代药物针对的是类似的受体。因此，识别疾病所需的真菌受体将是对抗真菌病原体、改善安全食品生产和保护人类健康的新的可药物靶点。

DO G-PROTEIN COUPLED RECEPTORS REGULATE PATHOGENESIS AND MYCOTOXIN BIOSYNTHESIS IN FILAMENTOUS PHYTOPATHOGENIC FUNGI?Fungal pathogens constantly attack crop plants and cause major diseases. In order to cause disease, some fungal pathogens secrete chemicals that are toxic to both plants and humans. Therefore, fungal diseases reduce a farmer's crop production and profit, while threatening human health. When a fungal pathogen lands on a plant, it senses the surrounding and decides whether this location is suitable for infection. How fungi sense the "touch and taste" of their environment through external receptors is largely unknown. These receptors, and their sensing of the environment, are thought to control how a fungal pathogen causes disease and whether it produces toxins. Therefore, we plan to identify fungal receptors that are required for disease in the cereal pathogen, and toxin producer, Fusarium graminearum. At Rothamsted Research, we will create a collection of mutated fungi missing different receptors. Within specialised containment facilities, we will test if the loss of these receptors reduces the ability of F. graminearum to cause disease and produce toxins in wheat. What is controlled by these receptors will be identified by comparing the expression of fungal genes during wheat infection. Fluorescent proteins and cutting-edge microscopy will be used to visualise how these receptors are activated upon detection of the plant host and how they interact with other proteins within the fungus to control disease.These studies will provide an understanding of how fungal pathogens regulate disease and toxin production in response the "touch and taste" of their environment. This new knowledge, and the state-of-the-art techniques developed, will be transferable to other fungal pathogens of plants and humans. Approximately 40% of modern pharmaceuticals target similar receptors. Therefore, the identification of fungal receptors needed for disease would represent novel drugable targets to combat a fungal pathogen, improving safe food production and protecting human health.