| Title of Project |
| Investigating the role of cell wall components in response to Fusarium graminearum infection in Arabidopsis thaliana |
| This project going to be… |
| Experimental (lab/field) |
| Full Name of Supervisor |
| Professor Kim Hammond-Kosack |
| Institution Department and Address |
| Biointeractions and Crop Protection Department, Centenary Building, West Common Harpenden, Herts AL5 2JQ United Kingdom Map It |
| Telephone |
| 01582763240 |
| kim.hammond-kosack@rothamsted.ac.uk |
| Position held |
| Principal Research Scientist |
| Full name of the day to day supervisor and/or arrangements for supervision |
| Victoria Armer, PhD student (2nd Year). Plus weekly meetings jointly with Victoria Armer and Kim Hammond-Kosack for wider project guidance. |
| Date of Project Commencement |
| 27/06/2022 |
| Duration (weeks) |
| 8 |
| Brief Description of Project |
| Fusarium graminearum is the causal agent of Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) on small grain cereals such as wheat, oats and barley. Utilising a variety of cell wall degrading enzymes (CWDEs) and toxins, this ascomycete fungus colonises host plant tissue causing extensive cell death, contamination of grain with toxins and reduces crop yields. Host plants respond to infection by reinforcing cell walls with components such as pectin and lignin. Many cell wall mutants are available in the model plant species Arabidopsis thaliana, which will be utilised in this project to screen for cell wall components that are instrumental to host defence during F. graminearum infection. In this project the following activities will be pursued: • Utilisation of the plant model Arabidopsis thaliana due to range of cell wall mutants available for testing for infection assays. • If covid-restrictions are in place, a back-up project will expand on the bioinformatics component exploring wheat orthologues to cell wall components known to be involved in defence in other pathosystems. |
| Attach the recommended reading for the project |
| Review on Arabidopsis vs wheat infection biology: Brewer and Hammond-Kosack (2015). Host to a stranger: Arabidopsis and Fusarium Ear Blight. Trends in Plant Science. 20(10): 651-663. doi: 10.1016/j.tplants.2015.06.011Fusarium + Arabidopsis research: Urban et al. (2002). Arabidopsis is susceptible to the cereal ear blight fungal pathogens Fusarium graminearum and Fusarium culmorum. The Plant Journal. 32(6): 961-973. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-313X.2002.01480.xArabidopsis cell wall composition and disease resistance: Molina et al. (2021). Arabidopsis cell wall composition determines disease resistance specificity and fitness. PNAS. 118(5): e2010143118. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2010243118 |
