Objective
Plant diseases represent one of the most important risks to ensuring global food security and new control strategies for the world’s most serious crop diseases are urgently needed. This project will lead to an unparalleled advance in understanding of the world’s most serious crop disease - rice blast. Each year rice blast disease claims 11-30% of the potential rice harvest, which is enough rice to feed 60 million people. The fungus that causes rice blast disease, Magnaporthe oryzae, is a highly adapted cereal pathogen, which forms specialized infection structures called appressoria that can breach the intact leaf surface and allow the fungus entry to living plant tissue. This project will result in the most comprehensive understanding of the biology of plant infection by a pathogenic fungus. The cross-disciplinary research programme will integrate next generation DNA sequencing, digital transcriptional profiling, and high throughput gene functional analysis, with cell biology and live cell imaging. In this way, the transcriptional networks and gene regulators of fungal virulence will be identified and characterized at a systems level. The project will investigate the nature of the host-pathogen interface using live cell imaging of stable transgenic rice lines expressing fluorescent fusion proteins that define specific sub-cellular domains and will allow the precise mechanism of cellular invasion by the fungus to be determined. The project will also use protein-protein interaction studies to identify the major effectors used by M. oryzae to suppress plant immunity and facilitate proliferation of the fungus within living plant tissue. In parallel, comparative genome analysis will define conserved the full repertoire of effector functions and the transcriptional networks necessary for plant disease. Comprehensive functional analysis of M. oryzae effectors will then be carried out by targeted gene deletion, spatial localization and target identification.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules proteins proteomics
- natural sciences biological sciences cell biology
- natural sciences biological sciences microbiology mycology
- medical and health sciences health sciences nutrition
- natural sciences mathematics pure mathematics mathematical analysis functional analysis
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
ERC-2011-ADG_20110310
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Host institution
EX4 4QJ Exeter
United Kingdom
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.