Objetivo
Cereals are the most important renewable resource for food, fodder and industrial raw material. Diseases of major crops such as barley and other cereals remain the most significant global constraints to production and quality, with large and unpredictable economic and environmental costs associated with chemical control.In their natural environment plants are subject to simultaneous challenges by a variety of biotic (biotrophic and necrotrophic fungi, viruses) and abiotic stresses (necrogenic agents, temper ature). Programmed cell death (PCD) is not exclusive to resistance mechanisms to pathogens, as hallmarks of apoptosis have been observed in plants exposed to the abovementioned stimuli. Therefore PCD can be associated with resistance, in some cases to susc eptibility leading to disease and environmental stresses. It was recently shown that these stimuli interfere with the outcome of RNA silencing-mediated defence (RMD) mechanisms. This aspect, so far understudied, is of importance as virus outbreak occurs as a result of change in environmental conditions. Therefore it is not only important to understand the molecular aspect of the plant response upon challenge by each individual agent but as well to investigate their respective role in response to challenge b y different pathogens. We propose to investigate the molecular mechanisms associated to PCD in response to challenge by fungal pathogens in barley and investigate the effect of stress on virus accumulation and the nature of RMD response in barley. A functi onal analysis of the barley transcriptome in response to fungal infection using the recently developed barley GeneChip microarray will be undertaken. This project will exploit virus-induced gene silencing approach in barley, currently used to elucidate the function of genes involved in resistance to pathogenic fungi and their potential role in regulating a host resistance response that could confer resistance to several pathogens.
Ámbito científico
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencesinfectious diseases
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesmicrobiologymycology
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesgeneticsRNA
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinephysiologyhomeostasis
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesagriculturegrains and oilseedscereals
Palabras clave
Convocatoria de propuestas
FP6-2004-MOBILITY-5
Consulte otros proyectos de esta convocatoria