Opis projektu
Badanie heterogeniczności komórkowej grzybów żywiących się roślinami hodowlanymi
Choroba ryżu wywoływana przez grzyba Magnaporthe oryzae jest odpowiedzialna za utratę do 30 % światowych plonów ryżu. Patogen ten wytwarza zarodniki, które mają różne profile transkrypcyjne. Finansowany przez Europejską Radę ds. Badań Naukowych projekt CELL-ENEITY ma na celu zbadanie mechanizmów odpowiedzialnych za obserwowaną heterogeniczność komórkową tego szkodliwego grzyba. Hipoteza robocza zakłada, że cykl komórkowy reguluje transkrypcję genów związanych z infekcją i określa ścieżkę rozwoju grzyba. Wyniki tych prac dostarczą ważnych informacji na temat procesu zakażenia M. oryzae i przyczynią się do znalezienia nowych celów leczenia.
Cel
Clonal microorganisms display cellular heterogeneity at the transcriptional level, to survive under unfavourable conditions or differentiate into specialised structures. This is the basis of antibiotic and fungicide resistance, but very little is known about how cellular heterogeneity originates and operates in the infection biology of agricultural fungi.
Magnaporthe oryzae is one of the most devastating fungal pathogens in the world that destroys enough rice to feed 60M people every year. It produces ~50,000 new spores a day from a single lesion in the fields, but it remains unknown whether they are transcriptionally different. Spores contain three cells that display cellular heterogeneity between them during appressorium development, a specialised cell necessary for infection. Two of the cells undergo autophagy rapidly and the third undergoes a mitotic division leading to the formation of the appressorium. The mechanism by which cellular heterogeneity operates in spores has never been elucidated.
This proposal will identify, for the first time, the molecular mechanisms driving cellular heterogeneity and genes subjected to it. An unparalleled resolution of the infection-associated developmental program of individual spore cells will be obtained by scRNA-seq, which will identify a cohort of virulence factors critical for infection. I propose that the underlying mechanism of cellular heterogeneity is the cell cycle, through the activity of Cyclin Dependent Kinases (CDKs) and a novel group called non-PSTARE CDKs, reported to be regulators of transcription in other organisms. By a state-of-the-art chemical genetic approach combined with phosphoproteomics, their role and signalling pathways will be determined. Overall, with this proposal, novel components associated to the infection process of one of the most threatening fungal pathogens in the world will be determined, opening avenues that up to date have not been explored and whose potential is inestimable.
Dziedzina nauki
Słowa kluczowe
Program(-y)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Temat(-y)
System finansowania
ERC - Support for frontier research (ERC)Instytucja przyjmująca
31006 Pamplona
Hiszpania