MULTILEVEL ANALYSIS OF THE CLUBROOT DISEASE AND ITS BIOLOGICAL CONTROL BY AN ENDOPHYTIC FUNGUS
project member: Susann Auer
Clubroot is a common worldwide spread plant disease that causes significant economic losses in agriculture. It is caused by a soil-borne pathogen named Plasmodiophora brassicae, an obligate and biotrophic protist (unicellular organism) that attacks cruciferous plants. In recent years, the disease has become increasingly serious and clubroot has become a major threat in Europe, North America or East Asia. The pathogen has a complex biphasic life cycle that leads to the production of hundreds of resting spores in infected root cells that are liberated after the death of the host plant and infect new crop plants in consecutive years. The phytohormones auxin and cytokinin are essential in the later infection phase, in the root swelling and the development of root galls, but the experimental evidence indicates that they could also play a key role in an early stage of the infection and the plant-pathogen interaction. There is also a trade-off for plants between growth and defense in which cytokinins are important. Thus, they might play a dual role also in the clubroot disease. In this project we will investigate the role of cytokinins in the defense response induced in clubroot-diseased plants by an endophytic fungus Acremonium alternatum by combination of molecular and -omics analyses.
Collaboration with Prof. Dr. Bretislav Brzobohaty, Dr. Martin Cerny at Mendel University, Brno, Czech Republic
