Fungal pathogens attack and self defence: Mechanisms to counteract microbial antagonism and plant defences

决定真菌病原体与其宿主（无论是植物还是微生物）相互作用结果的过程是复杂的。我的研究重点是了解病原体如何对宿主的防御策略做出反应，以及它们如何操纵宿主的新陈代谢。长期目标是揭示真菌感染植物寄主或克服其他真菌攻击的复杂机制。在这项发现资助中，短期目标是开发一个综合的转录组学、蛋白质组学和代谢组学分析平台，使用基因阵列测量和质谱，用于表征转录物、蛋白质和代谢物水平的变化，这些变化可以有针对性地减少疾病的负面影响。该平台将用于监测响应生物胁迫的全球分子变化，并绘制确定真菌病原菌solani与马铃薯芽（病理系统1）和秀丽隐杆线虫（病理系统2）相互作用过程中基因表达、蛋白质和代谢物之间功能连接的网络。这些发现将为植物病害管理策略的基于知识的创新方法奠定基础。这些生物标志物的发现有望对生物防治领域产生影响，并使我们能够开发新的策略来提高植物的抗病性。高通量代谢组学与生物计量学的结合以及与其他“组学”方法的整合将为代谢物发现和网络构建的应用提供坚实的专业知识。我们的目的是阐明调节致病性的关键生化机制。总的来说，这些知识可以用于处理生物技术的研究，如基因工程和/或生物标记辅助植物育种。

The processes that determine the outcome of an interaction between a fungal pathogen and its host, be it a plant or a microbe, are complex. My research program focuses on understanding how pathogens respond to the host's defense strategies and how they manipulate its metabolism to their advantage. The long-term objectives are to unravel the complex mechanisms employed by fungi to infect their plant hosts or to overcome attack by other fungi. In this Discovery grant, the short-term objectives are to develop a comprehensive platform for transcriptomic, proteomic, and metabolomic profiling using gene array measurements and mass spectrometry, for the characterization of transcript, protein, and metabolite level changes that can be targeted to decrease the negative impacts of diseases. This platform will be used to monitor global molecular changes in response to biotic stresses, and to map networks that define connectivity in function between gene expression, proteins, and metabolites for the fungal pathogen R. solani during interaction with potato sprouts (pathosystem 1) and with the mycoparasite S. elegans (pathosystem 2). The findings will lay the foundation for innovative knowledge-based approaches for plant disease management strategies. The discovery of biomarkers is expected to have an impact on the field of biological control and enable us to develop novel strategies to enhance plant disease tolerance. The knowledge on high-throughput metabolomics combined with biometrics and integration with other 'omics' approaches will provide solid expertise for application to metabolite discovery and network construction. Our aim is to elucidate key biochemical mechanisms that regulate pathogenicity. Collectively, such knowledge could be exploited in research dealing with biotechnology such as genetic engineering and/or biomarker-assisted plant breeding.