Trichoderma mycoparasitism enters the post-genomic era

01.09.2009 - 30.08.2015
Forschungsförderungsprojekt
The majority of plant diseases are caused by fungi and, in spite of the use of chemical fungicides in pest management, these fungi still are responsible for extensive economical losses. Some species of Trichoderma are able to impede growth of and can even kill these phytopathogenic fungi by mycoparasitism, and therefore are commercially applied as biological control agents against fungal pathogens in agriculture. The mycoparasitic interaction is host-specific and several proteins involved in intracellular signal transduction pathways play prominent roles in the recognition of host-derived ligands and in the activation of the mycoparasitic response. Recent investigations proved the relevance of G protein signalling for host recognition and for regulating mycoparasitism-relevant processes such as the production and secretion of hydrolytic enzymes and antimicrobial metabolites and the formation of mycoparasitism-associated infection structures in Trichoderma atrovirde. To obtain further insights into the molecular processes enabling Trichoderma atroviride to act as mycoparasite, the identification of the involved genes is indispensable. The recent release of the Trichoderma atroviride genome database now allows the generation of genome-wide expression profiles of this fungus under varying cultivation conditions by employing microarray technology. In the frame of this project, respective expression profiles of the wild-type and an avirulent mutant with defects in G protein signalling mediated by the Gpr1 G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) cultivated in the presence or absence of a living host fungus shall be obtained. By comparing these expression profiles using bioinformatics, differentially expressed mycoparasitism-relevant genes as well as targets of the Gpr1 GPCR can be identified. To prove the functionality and involvement of selected genes in mycoparasitism-related processes, respective recombinant Trichoderma strains shall be generated and subjected to various biocontrol assays. This genome-wide approach for isolating mycoparasitism-relevant genes is highly topical and, in combination with the elucidation of underlying regulatory mechanisms, bears the potential to develop Trichoderma-based products with enhanced performance. As Trichoderma is a prominent producer of enzymes as well as antimicrobial metabolites, the identified genes in addition are putative targets for new products with industrial and medical applications.

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Institut

Grant funds

  • FWF - Österr. Wissenschaftsfonds (National) Austrian Science Fund (FWF)

Forschungsschwerpunkte

  • Biological and Bioactive Materials: 100%

Schlagwörter

DeutschEnglisch
Mykoparasitismusmycoparasitism
TrichodermaTrichoderma
SignaltransduktionSignalling
Microarraymicroarray
Funktionelle Genomikfunctional genomics

Publikationen