Award details

Pathogenicity function of an avirulence gene family in barley powdery mildew

Reference	BB/C506299/1
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor James Brown
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors	Dr Christopher Ridout
Institution	John Innes Centre
Department	Disease and Stress Biology
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	243,271
Status	Completed
Type	Research Grant
Start date	01/10/2004
End date	30/09/2007
Duration	36 months

Abstract

We have identified an avirulence gene (AVRk1) from barley powdery mildew, confirmed that it has an avirulence function and demonstrated that it belongs to a novel, conserved protein family. The gene family has apparently proliferated within the genome, indicating that the genes might code for essential effectors required for pathogenicity or the biotrophic lifestyle of this pathogen. We now plan to capitalise on our recent exciting discoveries by investigating the function and evolution of these avirulence gene homologues. Since AVRk1 and homologues are essential for pathogenicity, we will investigate their function. We will perform a series of experiments to identify a pathogenicity target involving yeast 2 hybrid procedures and immunoprecipation of interacting proteins. We will also perform a series of microscopic investigations to probe the expression and fate of these proteins in the plant cell. For this we will undertake gene fusion experiments, and transiently express the proteins in plants. Tagged proteins will be located by confocal and electron microscopy. We will also make peptide antibodies to examine the fate of the native protein in infected leaf tissue. We propose that this essential gene family has proliferated in the genome as a consequence of co-evolution with the host in order to avoid recognition by resistance genes. We will therefore isolate the homologues from the barley mildew genome by screening cDNA libraries to investigate their phylogenetic relationship. The results will enable us to establish how specific amino acid residues in the gene family undergo selection as a consequence of functional evolution whilst avoiding detection by resistance genes.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Plant & Microbial Sciences (PMS)
Research Topics	X – not assigned to a current Research Topic
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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