Investigating effector function in the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae

Rice blast disease is one of the most serious diseases affecting rice cultivation around the world, detroying enough rice each year to feed 60 million people. The disease is caused by the fungus Magnaporthe oryzae, which also threatens wheat and millet production, affecting Asia and Africa in particular. During plant infection, the rice blast fungus deploys a large repertoire of effector proteins that enable it to suppress host immunity and proliferate rapidly in plant tissue, overwhelming the host plant and causing disease. These effectors are specifically expressed when the fungus grow in plant tissue, but the host proteins that they target and the biological processes that they affect are largely unknown. This project will identify plant proteins that are targeted by effector proteins using immuno-precipitation and tandem mass spectrometry and then carry out structural analysis of interacting protein complexes using X-ray crystallography. The project will functionally characterise plant proteins by analysing mutants in rice to determine their role in host immunity. In parallel, the project will functionally characterise effector proteins by generating corresponding deletion mutants in the blast fungus and determine their role in fungal pathogenesis.