Research Accomplishment Reports 2007

Biochemistry and Genetics of Plant Fungal Interactions

L.J. Vaillancourt
Department of Plant Pathology

 

Project Description

(Description condensed from the NCCC-173 committee homepage: http://nimss.umd.edu/homepages/home.cfm?trackID=3074)

The members of the NCCC-173 committee study a variety of important plant-pathogenic fungal genera including Colletotrichum, Alternaria, Fusarium, Sclerotinia, Cochliobolus, Pyrenophera, Monolinia, Ustilago, Magnaporthe, Aspergillus, Curvularia, and their hosts. These fungi represent the entire range of pathogenic lifestyles (biotrophy, hemibiotrophy, and necrotrophy), and occupy a variety of plant tissues and microhabitats.  Many produce toxins and/or extracellular enzymes involved in pathogenicity. The goal of the committee is to share, compile, and analyze information in order to understand universal similarities and unique differences involved in fungal pathogenesis and plant responses to fungi. During the annual workshops, researchers present preliminary and current data in an environment of open discussion and constructive critique.

Membership in NCCC-173, includes classical geneticists, population biologists, evolutionary biologists, molecular biologists, physiologists, mycotoxicologists, plant molecular biologists, field epidemiologists, and pest management scientists. Meetings are multidisciplinary and designed to foster collaborative interactions between basic and applied scientists representing land grant universities, private industry and government. The meetings inspire research progress from individual labs, establishment of numerous collaborations, coordination of research efforts to better define the disease process, unification of strain designations, use and expansion of fungal strain repositories, and training of graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and technicians.

The meetings have supported various coordinated efforts in the study of penetration, early signal transduction, colonization, and the communication that results in the expression of different fungal symbiotic lifestyles (parasitic, mutualistic, and commensalistic). The committee has helped to define future directions for individual labs and collaborative groups, with the goal of integrating research findings concerning the biology of plant-fungal interactions with new information about the basic resistance mechanisms in host plants.

The meeting in 2007 took place in Seattle, WA.  It was well attended and had a special focus on the potential usefulness of model pathogenicity systems (i.e. Arabidopsis thaliana) for studies of plant-fungal interactions.

Impact

The ability of fungi to develop fungicide resistance and overcome plant resistance continues to interfere with designing durable control measures for pathogenic fungi. A better understanding of plant-fungal interactions and of the response of plants to pathogens is critical for the development of effective and long-term control measures. The goal of the NCCC-173 multi-state committee is to enable individuals from several diverse disciplines and fungal systems to meet and share information, and to collaborate and cooperate on projects and grants, to better understand fungal-plant interactions.  As a group, the committee has been enormously successful, and has published 21 collaborative papers and obtained more then 6 million dollars in collaborative grant funding just in the past five years.  Collaborations have also been set up surrounding the development of a strain repository, and development and use of various vector systems incorporating fluorescent tags for cytological work.

Publications

Venard, C., Vaillancourt L. (2007). Penetration and colonization of unwounded maize tissues by the maize anthracnose pathogen Colletotrichum graminicola, and by the related non-pathogen C. sublineolum. Mycologia 99: 368-377

Venard, C., Vaillancourt, L. (2007). Colonization of fiber cells by Colletotrichum graminicola in wounded maize stalks. Phytopathogy 97: 438-44.