How do fungal pathogens perturb synthesis and partitioning of primary carbon and nitrogen metabolites as they form a nutritional interface with a susceptible host?

J Draper & I Donnison

Plant diseases represent a significant constraint to the global food supply. One of the most serious crop diseases is rice blast, which causes losses of up to 30% of the international rice harvest and additionally effects a wide range of other grass species. Recent IBERS research using metabolomics technology has shown that pathogenicity effectors from invading fungal pathogens dynamically re-programme host metabolism as they suppress induced defence responses (such as lignification) and establish a nutritional interface with host tissue. A major side effect of infection is the blocking of starch storage accompanied by an increase in the transport of soluble nitrogen compounds and sucrose to infected tissues. Coincidentally, the manipulation of accessible nutrient content and an ability to modulate the amount of lignin is also a major goal of IBERS research aiming to optimise crops for bioenergy production. The student will evaluate how fungal pathogenicity determinants (e.g. secreted fungal effector proteins or secreted fungal metabolite signals) perturb plant metabolism and hence chemical composition.