Deconstructing the polysaccharide matrix of the Magnaporthe oryzae wall: Deciphering the role of Gel remodelling enzymes

Lead Research Organisation: University of Exeter
Department Name: Biosciences

Abstract

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Planned Impact

The Royal Society report "Reaping the Benefits: Science and Sustainable Intensification of Global Agriculture" (2009) highlights the huge challenge of ensuring global food security over the next five decades. Crop yields must rise, but chemical inputs must fall. Novel approaches to improve productivity by protecting our crops from disease merit much attention. Our proposal aims to control disease by interfering with the polysaccharides architecture of the fungal cell wall and to invoke use of an environmentally-benign chemistry which may compromise the wall and which may also impact on plant immunity. The impact of our proposed work is therefore very significant on the world's stage with regard to Food Security but it will impact beyond plant disease, being relevant to human mycoses and emerging fungal diseases of note (eg Geomyces sp devastating bat populations and Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis decimating frogs/ toads).

This programme of research will draw together the disciplines of plant pathology, transcriptomics, wall biochemistry, antifungal action, and plant immunity under the broad umbrella of "systems biology" of the fungal wall. Despite the attractiveness of the unique fungal wall (across the Kingdoms) we know very little about the role of polysaccharide assembly.
We will attempt to redress this - our work will impact upon
i) Knowledge - giving a greater understanding of the earliest moments of fungal germination
ii) UK science - enhancing the profile of the Investigators on the national and international stage and launching the PDRA onto these stages
iii) Interdisciplinary science - endowing both Investigators and PDRA with new awareness and widened interdisciplinary skills
iv) Fostering broadened industrial links with PuriCore* in the common quest for new antifungal drug discovery in AgChem and pharmaceutical companies
v) Fuelling greater research effort across the continents.
vi) Training PDRA and PhD student in cross-disciplinary research
vii) Promoting public awareness of science and raising awareness of importance of pathogenic fungi to the plight of the hungry.

* This BBSRC IPA programme is partly funded by PuriCore. They will therefore be the most immediate industrial beneficiaries. A pre-proposal was approved by PuriCore Board of Management in early 2011 and this application authorised. The company will provide the cell wall perturbant chemistries. A Materials Transfer Agreement has been signed and the Research Contract Agreement will be in place co-incident with the start of this project. There will be regular meetings, agreed milestones and effective communication. PuriCore Executive Chairman, Chris Wightman, and Senior Scientific Director, Mark Sampson, flew in from US to join Martyn Rogers (PuriCore, UK) and SG at Oxford for discussions and preparation of the application in Feb 2011.
 
Description The research has led to identification of the major cell wall modifying enzyme activities in the rice blast fungus. This is a major disease-causing organism and understanding how its cell wall is made, could provide new means of controlling the disease.

We identified a family of glucan elongation proteins (Gels) and characterise its five putative ß-1,3-glucan glucanosyltransferases, carrying the Glycosyl Hydrolase 72 domain. We have generated mutants of all of the Magnaporthe oryzae Gel family and have characterised these mutants and studied their effect on global patterns of gene expression. The work is of considerable potential importance to developing new means of controlling the disease with novel anti-fungal molecules.
Exploitation Route The outputs of the research are being discussed with the industrial partner. The grant has only just finished and this is ongoing.
Sectors Agriculture, Food and Drink
 
Description Discussions are in progress with the industrial partner, led by the grant principal investigator, Professor Sarah Gurr
First Year Of Impact 2017
Sector Agriculture, Food and Drink
Impact Types Economic
 
Title Magnagenes Version 1.0 
Description We report the compilation of MagnaGenes , a database which summarises all the available studies reporting phenotypic data about gene function in the blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae. MagnaGenes includes information for 1637 genes and allows them to be sorted by putative function. For example, those with a particular role, such as 'conidiation' can be defined and grouped together. Magnagenes also contains clickable hyperlinks to the associated primary literature and to gene information held in the Ensembl and Uniprot databases. Magnagenes highlights some of the strengths and weaknesses in the Magnaporthe research community's effort to understand the genetic basis of the ability of M. oryzae to cause blast disease. It can serve as a guide to the understudied aspects of the blast fungus biology. We provide Magnagenes to the community as part of the OpenRiceBlast and Open WheatBlast initiatives. We aim to release regular updates to Magnagenes and welcome additions or corrections from the blast research community to expand the database. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2021 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact Magnagenes has prov en an invaluable tool in all gene functional studies and for defining differences between rice blast and wheat blast. 
URL https://zenodo.org/record/4647766#.Yi7BXhDMI6E