Investigating effector function in the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae

稻瘟病是影响全世界水稻种植的最严重的病害之一，每年损失的水稻足以养活6000万人。这种疾病是由真菌Magnaporthe millennae引起的，它也威胁到小麦和小米的生产，特别影响亚洲和非洲。在植物感染过程中，稻瘟病真菌部署了大量的效应蛋白，使其能够抑制宿主免疫并在植物组织中迅速增殖，压倒宿主植物并引起疾病。当真菌在植物组织中生长时，这些效应物特异性地表达，但是它们靶向的宿主蛋白质和它们影响的生物过程在很大程度上是未知的。该项目将使用免疫沉淀和串联质谱鉴定效应蛋白靶向的植物蛋白，然后使用X射线晶体学对相互作用的蛋白质复合物进行结构分析。该项目将通过分析水稻中的突变体来确定植物蛋白在宿主免疫中的作用，从而在功能上增强植物蛋白。与此同时，该项目将通过在稻瘟病菌中产生相应的缺失突变体来功能性地抑制效应蛋白，并确定它们在真菌发病机制中的作用。

Rice blast disease is one of the most serious diseases affecting rice cultivation around the world, detroying enough rice each year to feed 60 million people. The disease is caused by the fungus Magnaporthe oryzae, which also threatens wheat and millet production, affecting Asia and Africa in particular. During plant infection, the rice blast fungus deploys a large repertoire of effector proteins that enable it to suppress host immunity and proliferate rapidly in plant tissue, overwhelming the host plant and causing disease. These effectors are specifically expressed when the fungus grow in plant tissue, but the host proteins that they target and the biological processes that they affect are largely unknown. This project will identify plant proteins that are targeted by effector proteins using immuno-precipitation and tandem mass spectrometry and then carry out structural analysis of interacting protein complexes using X-ray crystallography. The project will functionally characterise plant proteins by analysing mutants in rice to determine their role in host immunity. In parallel, the project will functionally characterise effector proteins by generating corresponding deletion mutants in the blast fungus and determine their role in fungal pathogenesis.