Development and application of atomic force microscopy to understand the architecture and function of the fungal cell wall.

真菌病在世界范围内造成了严重的农作物损失。尽管与杀菌剂作了斗争，但它们面临着逐渐失去效力和加强监管控制的双重挑战。创造抗击真菌疾病的新的、更具体的解决方案是减少作物损失从而维持粮食供应的核心。真菌的细胞壁与寄主作物(和人类)不同，因此是特定控制措施的潜在目标。然而，到目前为止，它的研究一直令人惊讶地不足。使用先进的AFM技术，这名学生将描述小麦的一种主要真菌病原体--小麦酵母菌的壁结构。利用现有的遗传资源和方法顺序地消化真菌壁，学生将探索真菌基因表达、壁结构和真菌感染寄主植物能力之间的联系。这些结果将以以前没有达到的分辨率提供对真菌细胞壁结构的新见解，并将有助于确定农业技术的潜在目标，以开发控制这种主要病原体的新方法。该项目结合了软物质物理中的先进技术，应用于一个具有根本利益的生物学问题，并应用于确保未来的粮食安全。

Fungal diseases cause major crop losses worldwide. Although combatted with fungicides, these are facing the twin challenges of gradual loss of efficacy and increasing regulatory control. Creating novel, more specific solutions to fighting fungal disease is core to decreasing crop losses, thus maintaining food supply. The cell wall of fungi is distinct from host crop plants (and humans), and, therefore, is a potential target for specific control measures. However, to date it has been surprisingly under-investigated.Using advanced AFM techniques, the student will characterise the wall structure Zymoseptoria tritici, a major fungal pathogen of wheat. Exploiting available genetic resources and approaches to sequentially digest the fungal wall, the student will explore the link between fungal gene expression, wall structure, and ability of the fungus to infect host plants. These results will provide new insight into the structure of the fungal cell wall at a resolution not previously achieved, and will aid in the identification of potential targets for agritech to develop novel approaches to controlling this major pathogen.The project combines advanced technologies in soft matter physics applied to a biological problem of both fundamental interest and application to securing future food security.