Discovery of natural products that are critical for controlling plant pathogens (TRUMAN_J17DTP)

植物病害对许多作物来说是一个巨大的问题，并可能造成巨大的生态和经济损失。在许多情况下，由于目前的治疗无效、昂贵或对环境有害，很难控制这些疾病。一种有希望的疾病控制途径是使用天然抑制病原体生长的细菌生物防治菌株，并且有重要证据表明细菌天然产物对抑制各种病原体至关重要。这与天然产物在医学（如抗生素）和农业（如杀虫剂）中发挥的关键作用是一致的。该项目将研究一个新的假单胞菌天然产物家族，该家族是通过使用普通痂（一种影响马铃薯的重要经济细菌疾病）的病原体抑制筛选发现的。这些化合物将被结构表征，它们的生物活性，调节和生物合成将被确定。该项目还将采用我们基于基因组的筛选方法来鉴定有助于抑制其他植物疾病的天然产物，最终目标是开发可用于控制植物疾病的化合物或菌株。

Plant diseases are a huge problem for many crops, and can cause a vast amount of ecological and economic damage. In many cases, it is difficult to control these diseases as current treatments are ineffective, expensive or environmentally damaging. A promising route to disease control is the use of bacterial biocontrol strains that naturally inhibit pathogen growth, and there is significant evidence to show that bacterial natural products are critical for the suppression of various pathogens. This is consistent with the crucial role that natural products have across medicine (e.g. antibiotics) and agriculture (e.g. insecticides).This project will investigate a novel family of Pseudomonas natural products that were discovered using a pathogen suppression screen using common scab, an economically important bacterial disease that affects potatoes. These compounds will be structurally characterised, and their bioactivities, regulation and biosynthesis will be determined. The project will also employ our genome-based screening approach to identify natural products that contribute to the suppression of other plant diseases, with the ultimate aim of developing compounds or strains that can be used to control plant disease.