Signal transduction in host sensing and mycoparasitic response of Trichoderma harzianum

01.01.2004 - 31.08.2004
Research funding project
Trichoderma harzianum has been shown to act as a mycoparasite and is therefore commercially applied as biological control agent against a number of plant pathogenic fungi. The mycoparasitic interaction is host-specific and not merely a contact response. It is thus likely that signals from the host fungus are recognised by Trichoderma and provoke antifungal activities which are accompanied by morphological changes (e.g. appressorium formation) and the secretion of hydrolytic enzymes (e.g. chitinases) and antibiotics. In contrast to the current knowledge about these factors acting in mycoparasitism, little is known on the signaling pathway(s) except that unidentified receptors appear to recognise lectins or other ligands from the host. As for some plant pathogenic fungi signal transduction cascades are already quite well characterised it is interesting to observe that several morphological changes are highly conserved within the strategy of pathogenicity. Especially the formation of appressoria but also the secretion of hydrolytic enzymes appears to be a general mechanism of virulence in plant pathogens as well as mycoparasites. Therefore, it is planned to use this particular knowledge as basis for identifying key components of the cAMP and MAP kinase signaling pathways involved in virulence and to isolate the initiation point of the involved cascades, either a G protein-coupled receptor or receptor-independent activators of G protein signaling pathways. To prove their functionality and involvement in mycoparasitism, a set of disruptant strains of T. harzianum shall be generated and their biocontrol activities examined by applying various in vitro and in vivo approaches. Furthermore, respective mutants of the plant pathogenic fungus Ustilago maydis shall be complemented to investigate a general exchangeability of pathogenicity effectors in plant and fungal pathogenic fungi.

People

Project leader

Institute

Grant funds

  • Österr. Akademie der Wissenschaften (National) Austrian Academy of Sciences

Keywords

GermanEnglish
SignaltransduktionSignalling
Mykoparasitismusmycoparasitism
Biokontrollebioconrol

External partner

  • Unievrsity of Napoli

Publications