Award details

Metabolomic analysis of the plant pathogenic fungi Fusarium graminearum and Fusarium culmorum

Reference	BBS/E/C/00004753
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Kim Hammond-Kosack
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	Rothamsted Research
Department	Rothamsted Research Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	104,704
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/11/2005
End date	31/10/2008
Duration	36 months

Abstract

This project is part of the BBSRC¿s special initiative on plant and microbial metabolomics. The project will primarily focus on the trichothecene mycotoxin producing Ascomycete fungus Fusarium graminearum (Fg) which causes ear blight disease of small grain cereals. The project aims to explore the metabolome of various wild-type and single gene deletion Fg strains and to compare some of these with the identical gene mutation in the budding yeast, S. cerevisiae (Sc) and the saprophytic filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa (Nc). The in vitro experimental conditions selected will be used to answer the following five questions: 1. How does the metabolome of the Fusarium fungal cell change during the switch from no trichothecene mycotoxins production to deoxynivalenol production? 2. What changes to the Fusarium metabolome occur as fungal nutrition switches from nutrient rich to nutrient poor and then returns to nutrient rich conditions? 3. How does the Fusarium metabolome change as a reduction in water availability occurs? 4. What similarities and differences exist between Sc, Nc and Fg when growing under nutrient rich conditions, nutrient poor conditions and decreasing water availability. 5. How distinct are the regulatory networks, molecular controls and points of crosstalk in a budding fungus, a free living filamentous saprophyte and a plant pathogenic filamentous fungus.In year 1, a pilot exploration of the contents of xylem and phloem recovered from the rachis of infected and uninfected wheat ears will also be done. All samples will be characterised using the MeT-RO facility at RRes.To ensure project relevance, the Fusarium mutants selected will be compromised in disease causing ability and / or DON mycotoxin production. These mutants have been generated outside this project. For some mutants and experimental conditions, a comparison of metabolome data with existing equivalent transcriptome and proteome data generated by others will be done.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Plant & Microbial Sciences (PMS)
Research Topics	Crop Science, Microbial Food Safety, Microbiology, Plant Science
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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