Award details

Metabolic and cell biological basis of host-pathogen interactions

Reference	BBS/E/G/00003116
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Dr Timothy Carver
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	Inst of Grassland and Environmental Res
Department	Inst of Grassland and Environmental Res Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	279,045
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/04/1999
End date	31/03/2003
Duration	48 months

Abstract

Fungal diseases constrain crop yield and quality and are commonly controlled by fungicides. These have the disadvantages of expense, possible pollution of the environment, difficulty of application, and loss of efficacy as new "insensitive" pathogen forms evolve. Host plant offers an alternative control. Resistance may be conditioned (i) by single genes, or (ii) polygenically by genes with minor effect that collectively confer high level quantitative resistance. Although single gene resistance is easily manipulated, it has proved ephemeral due to evolution of pathogen virulence. Polygene resistance provides stable, durable, resistance not eroded by simple genetic change. However, polygene resistance is difficult to manipulate and different host characters combine to give the phenotype. The aim is to understand the cellular basis of resistance mechanisms to help exploiting truly durable forms of resistance in integrated, sustainable crop production systems. Potential benefits include increasing predictability of crop outputs and reducing fungicide usage, costs and potential pollution. The cereal mildew system provides a model. Three aspects of plant / pathogen interaction will be considered. 1. What drives differentiation of infection structures. Future work will concentrate on signal transmission, involvement of host factors their perception with a view to reducing efficiency of infection structure formation and limiting disease. 2. Description of induced cellular accessibility and inaccessibility in epidermal cells. The importance of these phenomena will be quantified to indicate possible underlying mechanisms involved in their expression. 3. Ultra-structure studies will explore the possibility that induced changes have a basis in irreversible changes in cell wall components. These studies support MAFF commissioned work (CE0154: Durable cereal disease resistance: the physiological, biochemical and genetic basis) and CE0143 and CE0144 (IGER plant breeders).

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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