AUSTRALIAN FRONTIERS OF SCIENCE, 2008
The Shine Dome, Canberra, 21-22 February
Session 2: Secreted effectors of fungi as determinants of plant disease and immunity
Chair: Professor Barbara Howlett
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Barbara Howlett and her research group in the School of Botany at The University of Melbourne study fungal diseases of the oilseed crop canola, focusing on blackleg, the major disease of canola worldwide. Approaches are holistic and multidisciplinary, ranging from devising strategies for farmers to minimise inoculum spread on infected stubble, to identifying pathogenicity determinants in the blackleg fungus. During the last 16 years, the group has developed genetic and molecular techniques to analyse the blackleg fungus and has demonstrated the role of fungal nutrition and toxin production in blackleg disease. With colleagues at INRA Versailles in France, Barbara jointly led a project funded by the French sequencing agency, Genoscope, to sequence the blackleg genome. Barbara is applying this knowledge to further understand the disease process. |
Effectors are very small molecules. They can be different types proteins, sugars et cetera but they have an effect on plants. They can cause the plant to defend itself, and they can lead to immunity or disease. Not only are they small; they also need to come from within the fungal cell to be able to initiate a recognition event on the plant. Knowledge of this is absolutely fundamental to understanding about plant disease mechanisms and also to inform strategies to control plant diseases. In Australia, we as a community do very well in this field, and indeed our two speakers today have made major contributions. They are going to tell you about two different fungal diseases and focus on these types of molecules.
