Investigating the proteome of barley powdery mildew extra-haustorial complexes to identify modulators of immunity.

Lead Research Organisation: Royal Holloway, Univ of London
Department Name: Biological Sciences

Abstract

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Studentship Projects

Project Reference Relationship Related To Start End Student Name
BB/M011178/1 30/09/2015 25/02/2025
1954388 Studentship BB/M011178/1 30/09/2017 30/12/2020
 
Description Disease attributed to fungi are a major contributor to reductions in crop yield. The focus of my research are powdery mildews, a large group of fungi which can attack and destroy many crops. This work focused on one powdery mildew, Blumeria graminis, which can infect cereal crops like wheat and barley. During the infection, the fungus will penetrate the plants leaf and form a special feeding structure called haustoria. These haustoria are critical to infection success. Focus was placed on trying to identify which fungal and plant components, such as proteins, are located to the haustoria.
Several proteins which have a potential role in modulating the infection process were localised to haustoria. One of which, a plant gene protein TLP5, was then shown to make the barley more vulnerable to the powdery mildew pathogen.
Understanding which genes are implicated in barley-blumeria infection will help to design crops that are more resistant to plant disease, and therefore help to ensure food security for the future.
Exploitation Route The validation of the TLP5 gene as a modulator of powdery mildew infection in barley will help in underpinning biotrophic pathogen/plant interactions. The methodology optimised in this project can be improved and applied to other plant/pathogen systems to help identify other genes involved in plant susceptibility.

Eventually this collective knowledge will assist in the development of plants with an increased immunity to biotrophic pathogens.
Sectors Agriculture

Food and Drink

URL https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2019.01138/full
 
Title LC-MSMS of Hordeum vulgare epidermis containing haustoria from Blumeria graminis f.sp. hordei 
Description Blumeria graminis f.sp. hordei is an obligate biotrohic fungal pathogen causing powdery mildew in barley. As for other biotrophic fungi, haustorial structures are at the centre of the biotrophic interaction and molecular exchanges, delivering fungal effectors or virulence factors, and taking nutrient from the host. Haustoria are originiated by the fungus, following successful penetration of the initial penetration peg through the plant cell call. Haustorial structures mainly of fungal origin, but they are surrounding by a plant component, the extrauhaustorial membrane and matrix (EHM and EHMx) forming the extrahuastorial complex (EHMc). The plant protein make-up of the plant extrahaustorial components remained unexplored, and this is a first study trying to describe plant proteome associated with haustoria using samples enriched for these structures. Therefore, proteomes of haustoria enriched samples from the epidermis of barley leaves infected with Blumeria graminins f.sp. hordei, the causing agent of barley powdery mildew, were compared to infected epidermis and un-infected epidermis to identify haustoria associated plant proteins. Haustoria were enriched from infected epidermis by digesting epidermal cell walls with cell wall degrading enzymes prior to enrichment for haustorial structures. Proteins identified in these samples were compared to infected and uninfected epidermis samples using a non-targeted label free semi-quantitation method. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2019 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact None other than the original findings made in the publication for this award. 
URL http://proteomecentral.proteomexchange.org/cgi/GetDataset?ID=PXD012684
 
Description Reading Mass Spec data analysis (MASCOT) 
Organisation University of Reading
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Proteomics data collection.
Collaborator Contribution Providing access and support to proteomics analysis server.
Impact Pride archive PXD012684 (http://proteomecentral.proteomexchange.org/cgi/GetDataset?ID=PXD012684) DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2019.0113
Start Year 2019