Award details

Environmental modulation of plant-pathogen interactions: Molecular mechanisms and evolution

Reference	BBS/E/J/000CA457
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Dr Vinod Kumar
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	John Innes Centre
Department	John Innes Centre Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	362,009
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/09/2011
End date	31/08/2016
Duration	59 months

Abstract

The project is aimed to understand the molecular basis of environmental modulation and adaptive evolution of plant-pathogen interactions. Plant-microbe interactions are influenced by environmental factors e.g. temperature. Plants are increasingly susceptible to diseases at higher temperatures. Climate change, especially increasing temperatures continue to result in increased severity and geographical range expansion of plant diseases. While elevated temperatures suppress resistance, plants also have the ability to enhance defenses in response to the biotic and abiotic environments. For example, interactions with non-pathogenic rhizobacteria such as Pseudomonas fluorescens impart broad-range resistance by facilitating a rapid and strong induction of defense genes upon subsequent pathogen infection – a process termed priming. In spite of their implications in agriculture and food security, neither of these processes is sufficiently well understood for potential applicability. Studies will be focused to understand: (1) The molecular underpinnings of defense gene regulation, (2) Molecular mechanisms underlying the influence of temperature and priming on defense gene regulation and disease resistance, and (3) How plants adapt their defense mechanisms to suit the local environment. Knowledge gathered from Arabidopsis will be used to devise crop (e.g. Brassica) improvement strategies for climate resilient and sustainable disease resistance.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Not funded via Committee
Research Topics	Crop Science, 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

I accept the terms and conditions of use (opens in new window)

export PDF file

back to list new search