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Sensory perception in BLAST fungus conidia by TOR

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Magnaporthe Oryzae is a filamentous fungus responsible for rice blast disease which destroys 10-30% of the global annual rice harvest. It can also attack various other cereal crops such as rye, barley, and wheat, establishing it as among the most devastating fungal plant pathogens. While central Europe's climate was previously thought to be unsuitable for blast disease development, researchers have recently isolated Magnaporthe strains from wild grasses in several European countries. Concerning, these strains appear to be able to infect wheat and barley and thus pose a threat to Europe's economically vital cereal production. While fungicide applications and selective breeding programs can help reduce crop losses, a comprehensive management strategy will be essential to control this pathogen effectively.

M. oryzae has evolved an intriguing developmental program enabling it to breach the leaf cuticle and gain access to underlying epidermal tissue. This process begins when a three-celled conidium lands on the surface of a leaf and rapidly germinates. Environmental cues are subsequently sensed to trigger signaling pathways that regulate development of a highly pressurized cell, known as an appressorium, which is needed for cuticle breach. Using bakers’ yeast as a model, my lab has made important contributions towards understanding how the atypical Ser/Thr protein kinase known as TOR (Target Of Rapamycin) regulates growth of eukaryote cells. Although new to us as an experimental model, we have preliminarily found that TOR also plays a key role in conidial sensory perception upstream of appressoria development in M. oryzae, by responding to nutrient, and, surprisingly, abiotic cues not previously linked to TOR signalling. Using molecular genetics, chemical and structural biology approaches, we wish to characterize these novel TOR signalling pathways to discover new ways by which TOR regulates cell growth and to probe their utility as antifungal targets.

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UNIVERSITE DE GENEVE
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€ 2 496 034,00
Adresse
RUE DU GENERAL DUFOUR 24
1211 Geneve
Schweiz
Region
Schweiz/Suisse/Svizzera Région lémanique Genève
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Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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