SAES-422 Multistate Research Activity Accomplishments Report
Sections
Status: Approved
Basic Information
- Project No. and Title: NCCC173 : Biochemistry and Genetics of Plant-Fungal Interactions
- Period Covered: 10/01/2002 to 09/01/2003
- Date of Report: 05/12/2004
- Annual Meeting Dates: 10/24/2003 to 10/26/2003
Participants
Sam Noble Foundation, 2510 Sam Noble Parkway, Ardmore, OK.
Members Attending: Michael Chippendale (Missouri),Lynda Cuiffetti (Oregon),Marty Dickman (Nebraska), Dan Ebbole (Texas), Scott Gold (Georgia), Joan Henson (Montana), Nancy Keller (Wisconsin), Corby Kistler (Wisconsin), Jenny Lorang (Oregon), Regina Redman (Washington; NCR-173 Chair), Rusty Rodriguez (Washington), Jeffery Rollins (Florida), Marilyn Roossinck (Oklahoma)
Barbara Valent (Kansas), Heather Wilkinson (Texas), and Jin-Rong Xu (Indiana)
Guests: Luis Marquez (Oklahoma), and Maria Garcia-Pedrajas (Georgia)
Topics covered at 2003 Annual Meeting
Regina Redman: Evolution and Survival of plants in high stress environments through adaptive fungal symbiosis
Heather Wilkinson: Evolution of a secondary metabolite gene cluster implicated in loline alkaloid biosynthesis of grass-endophytes (Epichloe and Neotyphodium spp.)
Nancy Keller: Global regulation of secondary metabolism
Michael Chippendale: Integrative trends in science and technology under the life sciences umbrella
Dan Ebbole: Genomic analysis of secreted proteins in the rice blast fungus
Jeff Rollins: Regulation of pathogenicity and development of Sclerotinia sclerotiorun
Scott Gold: M
orphogenetic switch between budding and filamentous growth in Ustilago maydis.Jennifer Lorang:
Cell death and signaling in disease susceptibility responseCorby Kistler: The whole genome sequence of the wheat and barley scab fungus, Fusarium
Barbara Valent: Avr gene function in pathogenicity and host specificity in the genomics era
Plans for the coming year
1. Use of information technology: Establish a website in which information can be shared. This will allow for easy, inexpensive access of information to all members pertaining to the exchange of ideas, coordination of laboratory and field research, protocols, contacts, meeting highlights, schedules, publications, and the fungal repository.
2. Coordination of specific laboratory and field research: Streamline experimental designs to address hypothesis driven questions applicable to all systems. Enhance data collection, analysis, and interpretation utilizing a multi-disciplinary approach. Coordination of studies and communication via a website based platform, will result in rapid accumulation and sharing of information to better understand the processes involved in plant - fungal interactions.
3. Exchange of ideas/information/data/reagents: Enhance productivity and save time and money by sharing of resources and ideas through a website based platform. Stimulate alternative approaches to obtain data and address specific questions and/or problems. Foster an environment that is collaborative, accessible, and mutually beneficial.
4. Publication of both individual and joint research/review articles: Enhance the available information base allowing for the better understanding of plant-fungal interactions. Ultimately, this information will be used to provide guidance for the development of management tools to enhance economic productivity and promote environmental stewardship.
5. Standardization of experimental protocols: Enhance reproducibility, analysis, and conformity of procedures by posting protocols on a website based platform. Standardization will promote consistency in interpretations of data which will save time and money.
6. Annual Meeting: Lynda Ciuffetti will host the 2004 meeting of NC-173 in Corvallis, OR
Accomplishments
Accomplishments and Impacts:
The accomplishments resulting from NCR-173 involve research progress from individual labs, establishment of numerous collaborations, coordination of research efforts to better define the disease process, unification of strain designations, use and expansion of the Colletotrichum repository, and training of graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and technicians.
During the annual workshops, researchers present preliminary and current data in an environment of open discussion and constructive critique. This helps the entire group focus research efforts on more productive areas and to unite our efforts in understanding the basis of disease in the genus Colletotrichum. In 2002, NCR-173 expanded its focus to encompass a number of other fungal genera.
One of the major benefits of NCR-173 is establishing and maintaining a culture repository so everyone can work with the same isolates and use standard isolates for comparative purposes. This standardization has allowed many of us to avoid generating strain-specific data that could not be compared to other laboratories. (http://www.uark.edu:80/depts/plant/)
Several collaborative efforts have been established as a result of these "workshops" where individual labs are dissecting different aspects of the disease process. We have coordinated efforts to study penetration, early signal transduction, colonization, and the communication that results in the expression of different symbiotic lifestyles (parasitic, mutualistic, and commensalistic). This has culminated in defining future directions for the workgroup which include characterizing molecular, genetic, biochemical, microbiological, and pathological aspects of the host-fungus interaction to help generate biological agents to control invasive weeds and protect plants against disease.
Impacts
- See accomplishments section.
Publications
Several of the members of NCR-173 have collaborated on a manuscript describing the use of the Green Fluorescent Protein in studies of plant-fungal interactions. This manuscript has been published in "Applied and Environmental Microbiology" (Lorang, J.M., Tuori, R.P. , Martinez, J.P., Sawyer. T.L. Redman, R.S., Rollins, J.A.. Wolpert. T.J., Johnson, K.B. Rodriguez, R.J., Dickman, M. B., and Ciuffetti, L.M.) 2001. Green fluorescent protein is lighting up fungal biology. Appl. Env. Microbiol. 67: 1987-1994), and represents a multi-laboratory effort, and the spirit of cooperation that NCR-173 is built on. Additional manuscripts resulting from collaborations established through NCR-173 include: "Fungi from geothermal soils of Yellowstone National Park" (Redman, R.S., Litvintseva, A., Sheehan, K.B., Henson, J.H., and Rodriguez, R.J.) 1999. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 65:5193-5197; "Field performance of cucurbit and tomato plants infected with a nonpathogenic mutant of Colletotrichum magna (teleomorph: Glomerella magna; Jenkins and Winstead)" (Redman, R.S., Rossinck, M.R., Maher, S., Andrews, Q.C., Schneider, W.L. and Rodriguez, R.J.) 2002. Symbiosis, 32:55-70; and "Plant thermotolerance conferred by fungal endophyte" (Redman, R.S., Sheehan, K.B., Stout, R.G., Rodriguez, R.J., and Henson, J.H.) 2002. Science (in press). Redman R.S., and Henson, J.M, Cornish, J.E., Stout, R.G., and Rodriguez, R.J. 2004,
Rodriguez, R.J., Redman R.S., and Henson, J.M. 2004, The Role of Fungal Symbioses in the Adaptation of Plants to High Stress Environments. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change. (In Press).