Novel genes - the missing link in Trichoderma mycoparasitism

01.08.2009 - 02.11.2012
Research funding project
Ecological systems word-wide including cropland are affected by climate changes and therefore the spread of plant pathogenic fungi as well as the contamination of water resources due to the increasing application of chemical fungicides threaten human and animal livelihood. In this context, biological pest control represents a serious alternative to conventional fungicides. Biocontrol active Trichoderma spp. were shown to meet these demands as they recognize and lyse various pathogenic fungi due to complex and yet not fully understood mechanisms involving morphological changes and the production of hydrolytic enzymes and antibiotic metabolites. Additionally, these species promote plant growth and induce systemic resistance in different plants. In the present proposal it is planned to elucidate the role of differentially expressed genes found during mycoparasitism of T. atroviride IMI206040 against fungi from distinct phyla concerning their function in host specificity, host recognition, mycoparasitism and biocontrol. To this end, 17 genes without predicted function of the corresponding protein and 9 genes with related function to mechanisms involved in antagonism were chosen for characterization throughout the proposed project. Amongst these are genes encoding for proteins participating in signal transduction, defense, autophagy, secondary metabolites biosynthesis, and intracellular trafficking, secretion, and vesicular transport. The strategy pursued to characterize and annotate all 26 gene products is the generation of deletion mutants and/or mutants over-expressing the corresponding gene and to determine their function in recognition of and mycoparasitic behavior against various plant pathogenic fungi (e.g. Rhizoctonia solani, Phytophthora capsici, and Botrytis cinerea). Furthermore, mutant strains strongly affected in their antagonistic ability will be compared to the parental strain concerning the production of secondary metabolites, secreted proteins, and their biocontrol abilities.

People

Project leader

Institute

Grant funds

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

Research focus

  • Materials Characterization: 100%

Keywords

GermanEnglish
TrichodermaTrichoderma
BiocontrolleBio control
Mykoparasitismusmycoparasitism
Genomweite Analysengenom wide analysis

External partner

  • Cinvestav Campus Guanajuato

Publications