TRR 356:  Genetic diversity shaping biotic interactions of plants (PlantMicrobe)

• Subject Area: Biology ; Chemistry
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 491090170

Agricultural plant productivity is the foundation of human civilisation and relies on plant health. The interaction of plants with microorganisms can be beneficial or devastating. Symbiotic interactions improve nutrient supply, plant health and yield, whereas pathogenic interactions can lead to complete yield loss and dramatic socio-economic consequences. Investment into sustainable science-based improvement of plant health is thus imperative. Over the past few years, LMU Munich, TU Munich, and EKU Tübingen significantly increased their investment into the number of research groups focussing on the molecular mechanisms controlling the outcome of biotic interactions of plants, resulting in three internationally visible competence centers. By bringing these hotspots together, we will create the synergistic TRR356 Genetic diversity shaping biotic interactions of plants (PlantMicrobe), with the long-term vision to improve plant health with novel genetic resources, protocols and tools. Our research strategy is unique and novel in that it utilises natural genetic variation as a source for discovery and as tools to unravel the molecular mechanisms shaping the outcome of biotic encounters of plants. The physical contact zone between host plants and infecting microbes is subject to continuous molecular communication leading to rapid evolution and co-evolution of infection and defence strategies. The actors determining the outcome of this encounter - comprising chemical signals, nutrient flows, interfering macromolecules, and/or toxins – carry the molecular signatures of such co-evolution. The resulting diversity of genetic determinants shaping the biotic interactions of plants is a valuable, yet underutilised, resource facilitating the discovery of novel genes and their variants, and the understanding of their function and their targeted utilisation for optimisation of symbiosis and pathogen defence. The genomics revolution provided our initiative with the tools to fully grasp the potential of nature’s innovations. The strategic inclusion of a Research Data Management project positions TRR PlantMicrobe exceptionally well to manage and bioinformatically analyse the large-scale datasets necessary for the exploration of natural diversity. In the long term, TRR PlantMicrobe will generate knowledge and identify health-promoting actor variants as the foundation for biotechnological strategies to improve plant health by boosting plant nutrition via root symbionts and by controlling plant diseases. TRR PlantMicrobe popularizes this long-term goal by outreach activities featuring the challenges of sustainable agriculture and the benefits of genome editing technologies. TRR PlantMicrobe strategically combines and strengthens comprehensive expertise in plant-microbe interactions at all participating research sites in a complementary manner, and fosters plant biology as a central element within the scientific landscape at LMU, TUM and EKUT.

• DFG Programme: CRC/Transregios

Current projects

• A02 - Diversity in the impact of karrikin signalling on arbuscular mycorrhiza development (Project Head Gutjahr, Caroline )
• A03 - The contribution of transposable elements of Blumeria graminis to cross kingdom compatibility with cereal hosts (Project Heads Hückelhoven, Ralph ;  Tellier, Aurélien )
• A04 - Genetic diversity within the basidiomycete yeast Dioszegia modulates reproductive fitness of the obligate pathogen Albugo laibachii on Arabidopsis thaliana (Project Head Kemen, Eric )
• A05 - Allelic variants underlying fitness in different biotic environments (Project Head Schandry, Niklas )
• A06 - Infection-induced germline and somatic mutation rates of resistance genes (Project Head Schneeberger, Korbinian )
• A07 - Genomic and geographic maps of NLRs and matching effectors in the A. thaliana - H. arabidopsidis pathosystem (Project Head Weigel, Ph.D., Detlef )
• B01 - Regulation of plasma membrane nanoscale dynamics in plant immune signaling (Project Head Gronnier, Ph.D., Julien )
• B02 - Diversification of the BIR receptor kinase family and its impact on plant health and crop yield (Project Head Kemmerling, Birgit )
• B03 - Effector-induced manipulation of host polyamine levels (Project Head Lahaye, Thomas )
• B04 - Exploring the functional diversification of the C4 proteins encoded by geminiviruses (Project Head Lozano-Durán, Ph.D., Rosa )
• B05 - Functional diversification within the microbial NLP superfamily (Project Head Nürnberger, Thorsten )
• B06 - Sequence adaptation of Symbiosis Receptor-like Kinase (SymRK) enabling nitrogen-fixing root nodule development (Project Head Parniske, Martin )
• B07 - Genetic and functional diversity of Lotus SymRK homologous receptor kinases in root endosymbiosis (Project Head Parys, Ph.D., Katarzyna )
• B08 - Functional diversity of the Arabidopsis thaliana SHRK family (Project Head Ried, Martina )
• B09 - Dissection of CrRLK1L signalling pathways regulating disease susceptibility and resistance to powdery mildew (Project Head Stegmann, Martin )
• INFI01 - Virtual Environment for Research Data and Analysis (VERDA) (Project Heads Hachinger, Stephan ;  Krüger, Jens ;  Mayer, Klaus F.X. )
• Z01 - Central Tasks of the Collaborative Research Centre (Project Head Parniske, Martin )
• Z02 - Comparative ultrastructure of plant-microbe interfaces (Project Head Klingl, Andreas )
• Z03 - Comparative genomics to study the diversity and conserved components inherent to the molecular interface of plant-microbe interactions (Project Heads Kamal, Nadia ;  Mayer, Klaus F.X. )
• Ö01 - Beneficial and harmful plant-microbe interactions – and how genetic diversity matters (Project Heads Hann, Ph.D., Dagmar ;  Kadereit, Gudrun )

• Applicant Institution: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
• Co-Applicant Institution: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen; Technische Universität München (TUM)
• Participating Institution: Helmholtz Zentrum München; Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Gesundheit und Umwelt; Leibniz-Institut für Pflanzenbiochemie (IPB); Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften ; Leibniz-Rechenzentrum; Max-Planck-Institut für Biologie; Max-Planck-Institut für molekulare Pflanzenphysiologie (MPI-MP)
• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Martin Parniske