Investigating the role of the Sln1 turgor sensor kinase in the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae

稻瘟病是一种严重危害世界水稻生产的毁灭性病害。稻瘟病是由一种名为Magnaporthe pasta的真菌引起的，该项目旨在研究真菌感染水稻所需的机制。稻瘟病真菌产生一种称为附着胞的特殊感染结构，它是一种圆顶形细胞，可以产生高达8MPa的巨大压力（或汽车轮胎压力的40倍）。这种压力作为物理力施加在叶片表面以刺穿植物角质层。我们的目标是研究附着胞内产生的巨大压力如何在感染细胞的基部转化为物理力。我们已经确定了一种称为Sln1的传感器蛋白，它是感染细胞调节膨压所必需的。没有这种蛋白质，附着胞在压力下继续扩张，但不能产生物理力并进入水稻叶片。在这个项目中，我们将研究Sln1在稻瘟病菌中的功能。我们将研究Sln1是如何在附着胞发育过程中被激活的。我们将确定与Sln1物理相互作用的蛋白质，因此可能有助于其功能，我们将研究可能被激活的蛋白质，或通过Sln1的活性抑制功能。通过这种方式，我们的目标是定义受Sln 1调节的图尔传感网络并了解附着胞的功能。这项研究可能会导致新的和新颖的疾病控制策略的发展，重点是防止真菌病原体，如稻瘟病菌，能够进入植物组织。

Rice blast is a devastating disease which affects rice cultivation all over the world. Blast is caused by a fungus called Magnaporthe oryzae and this project aims to investigate mechanisms required by the fungus to infect rice plants. The rice blast fungus produces a specialised infection structure called an appressorium, which is a dome-shaped cell that can generate enormous pressure of up to 8MPa (or 40 times the pressure of a car tyre). This pressure is applied as physical force at the leaf surface to puncture the plant cuticle. This remarkable infection process enables the fungus to cause disease.We aim to investigate how the enormous pressure generated inside the appressorium is translated into physical force at the base of the infection cell. We have identified a sensor protein called Sln1, which is necessary for the infection cell to regulate turgor pressure. Without this protein, the appressorium continues to expand under pressure, but cannot generate physical force and break its way into a rice leaf. In this project we will investigate how Sln1 functions in the rice blast fungus. We will investigate how Sln1 is activated during appressorium development. We will identify proteins that physically interact with Sln1 and may therefore contribute to its function, and we will study the proteins that are likely to be activated, or repressed in function by the activity of Sln1. In this way, we aim to define the turgor-sensing network that is regulated by Sln1 and understand how the appressorium functions. This research may lead to the development of new and novel disease control strategies that are focused on preventing fungal pathogens, like the blast fungus, from being able to gain entry to plant tissue.