Project Details
Projekt
P07: Regulation of antimicrobial and host-targeting effector proteins in beneficial and pathogenic root-associated fungi
Applicant
Professorin Dr. Alga Zuccaro
Subject Area
Organismic Interactions, Chemical Ecology and Microbiomes of Plant Systems
Term
since 2024
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 520490591
Symbiotic interactions have evolved over millions of years leading to finely tuned relationships not only between microbes and their hosts but also among the microbiome's diverse members (Mesny, Hacquard, and Thomma 2023). Notably, these inter-microbial relationships have direct repercussions on plant health. This is illustrated by microorganisms which exhibit a high pathogenic potential in mono-culture but can be effectively restrained as part of a balanced microbial community. In order to maintain this balance, microbiome members have developed mechanisms to defend their niche, and by extension their host, against outsiders. The beneficial root endophyte Serendipita vermifera for instance acts synergistically with bacterial members of the plant microbiome to protect barley against the pathogenic fungus Bipolaris sorokiniana. Upon co-culture in soil, S. vermifera and the closely related S. indica induce the expression of hydrolytic proteins that antagonize B. sorokiniana and reduce its virulence potential (Mahdi et al., 2022; Sarkar et al., 2019; Eichfeld et al., 2023). These proteins are part of an extensive arsenal of secreted proteins commonly referred to as "effectors" (Zuccaro et al., 2011; Zuccaro, Lahrmann, and Langen 2014). The revelation that effectors can be directed against other microbes presents exciting prospects for sustainable agriculture. Understanding how beneficial fungi employ effectors to defend their niches against pathogens could lead to innovative strategies for crop protection and might help to fully harness the potential of synthetic microbial communities. While an increasing number of effectors are being identified in plant-associated microbes, the regulatory mechanisms underlying fungal effector gene expression remain understudied. In this project, large-scale time-resolved transcriptomic data previously produced in cooperation with the JGI will be used to study fungal gene expression networks in planta and during confrontation with other microbes. We will identify and functionally characterize TFs which regulate the expression of effector genes involved in fungal accommodation in roots and inter-microbial synergistic interactions and/or competition. Our specific objectives are to: 1) Identify TFs regulating effector gene expression in beneficial root endophytes during inter-microbial and microbe-barley interactions; 2) Establish a pipeline for the identification and analysis of co-regulated microbial genes in response to different biotic stimuli; 3) Use the pipeline generated in 2 to extend the analysis from 1 to other fungi with different lifestyles in cooperation with the other members of the RU.
DFG Programme
Research Units
