| Title of Project |
| Establishing a Cereal-Pseudomonas Pathosystem for Comparative Phytopathology Research |
| This project going to be… |
| Experimental (lab/field) |
| Full Name of Supervisor |
| Philip Carella |
| Institution Department and Address |
| John Innes Centre, Colney Lane Norwich, Norfolk NR4 7UH United Kingdom Map It |
| Telephone |
| +44 (0)1603 450000. |
| philip.carella@jic.ac.uk |
| Position held |
| Group Leader |
| Full name of the day to day supervisor and/or arrangements for supervision |
| Dr. Phil Carella (group leader) will routinely meet with the student and advise on experimental design and implementation. Dr. Khong-Sam Chia (postdoc) will support the student in the lab and with infection assays, phenotyping, and bacterial growth determination. Additional training on bacterial transformations and genetic manipulation will be done with Dr. Phil Carella. |
| Date of Project Commencement |
| 03/07/2022 |
| Duration (weeks) |
| 8 |
| Brief Description of Project |
| Pseudomonas syringae (Psy) is a widespread bacterial pathogen that causes significant damage to plants worldwide. While a vast amount of molecular pathology research has focused on it’s interactions with model dicots like Arabidopsis and tomato, several agricultural and ecological surveys have identified Psy isolates with expansive host ranges that include monocots like cereal crops. To begin to identify and understand mechanisms of virulence that are important for cereal infection, the student will screen a diverse set of 75 Psy isolates for their ability to cause disease in the model cereal Hordeum vulgare. Upon isolating a reliable virulent strain, they will then assess virulence in additional monocot crops like wheat and maize. Despite the time constraints the student will also contribute to resource development by generating type 3 secretion system (T3SS)-deficient mutants (hrcC) unable to utilize effector proteins and/or mutants in common bacterial phytoxins. Time permitting, this will enable them to assess the contribution of core virulence factors to cereal infection. Thus far our preliminary analyses using a set of strains has identified differential capacities of Psy isolates to promote disease in distantly-related plants. Integrating monocot crops into this framework will enable further comparative analyses that will shed light on generalized-vs-specific virulence principles within the Pseudomonas syringae species complex. |
| Attach the recommended reading for the project |
| Evolution of Pseudomonas syringae: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30606234/ |
