Project description
Plant-microbe interactions in land plants
Research on plant-microbe interactions has primarily focused on flowering plants. However, a recent study found that the fungus Trichoderma has opposite effects on flowering plants compared to non-seed plants. While it promotes growth and defence in flowering plants, it acts as a pathogen in non-vascular plants and ferns, highlighting unexpected differences in plant immunity and fungal behaviour. The ERC-funded FRIENEMIES project will investigate the molecular evolution of plant-microbe interactions across land plants by studying the molecular mechanisms involved in disease in non-seed plants. Specifically, it will use genetically tractable model plants and sequenced Trichoderma strains. The project aims to uncover the conservation of susceptibility and resistance mechanisms and describe differences in immunity across land plants.
Objective
Plants live in close association with microbes, establishing interactions that range from beneficial to detrimental. Molecular plant-microbe interactions have been extensively studied in flowering plants, whereas research in non-seed plant lineages has been hindered by the lack of pathosystems reflecting natural plant-microbe interactions. My team and I identified the first example of a fungus that establishes opposite interactions with flowering and non-seed plants. We discovered that the fungus Trichoderma, which promotes plant growth, defense, and stress tolerance in flowering plants, is pathogenic for other land plant lineages (non-vascular plants and ferns) indicating unexpected differences in land plant immunity and fungus behavior. The overarching goal of our project FRIENEMIES is to decipher the molecular evolution of plant-microbe interactions from pathogenic to beneficial across land plants. In FRIENEMIES, my team and I will characterize the molecular mechanisms involved in disease in non-seed plants using three genetically tractable non-seed model plants (two bryophytes and the C-fern) and a diversity panel of sequenced Trichoderma strains where we will identify fungal effectors, plant susceptibility and resistance genes and signaling pathways relevant for pathogenic interactions. Combining omics, reverse genetics, natural variation, and phylogenetic analyses we will reveal the conservation of susceptibility/resistance mechanisms in other plant lineages and determine the emergence of mutualistic interactions between Trichoderma and land plants. We envision that FRIENEMIES will describe fundamental differences in immunity across land plants, discover potentially novel and conserved molecular mechanisms mediating plant-microbe interactions, define their evolutionary trajectories, and reveal the key evolutionary switches associated with major innovations in land plants underlying the transition between susceptibility, resistance, and mutualism.
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 microbiology mycology
- natural sciences biological sciences biological behavioural sciences ethology biological interactions
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
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.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Topic(s)
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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.
Funding Scheme
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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.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2024-STG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
72074 Tuebingen
Germany
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