Dissecting the molecular mechanisms of cellular heterogeneity controlling infection-associated development in plant pathogenic fungi

Introduction

Clonal microorganisms display cellular heterogeneity at the transcriptional level, to survive under unfavourable conditions or differentiate into specialised structures. This is the basis of antibiotic and fungicide resistance, but very little is known about how cellular heterogeneity originates and operates in the infection biology of agricultural fungi.

Background

Magnaporthe oryzae is one of the most devastating fungal pathogens in the world that destroys enough rice to feed 60 million people every year. It produces approximately 50,000 new spores a day from a single lesion in the fields, but it remains unknown whether they are transcriptionally different.

Cellular Heterogeneity in Spores

Spores contain three cells that display cellular heterogeneity between them during appressorium development, a specialised cell necessary for infection. Two of the cells undergo autophagy rapidly, and the third undergoes a mitotic division leading to the formation of the appressorium. The mechanism by which cellular heterogeneity operates in spores has never been elucidated.

Proposal Objectives

This proposal will identify, for the first time, the molecular mechanisms driving cellular heterogeneity and genes subjected to it. An unparalleled resolution of the infection-associated developmental program of individual spore cells will be obtained by scRNA-seq, which will identify a cohort of virulence factors critical for infection.

Mechanism Hypothesis

I propose that the underlying mechanism of cellular heterogeneity is the cell cycle, through the activity of Cyclin Dependent Kinases (CDKs) and a novel group called non-PSTARE CDKs, reported to be regulators of transcription in other organisms.

Methodology

By a state-of-the-art chemical genetic approach combined with phosphoproteomics, their role and signalling pathways will be determined.

Conclusion

Overall, with this proposal, novel components associated with the infection process of one of the most threatening fungal pathogens in the world will be determined, opening avenues that up to date have not been explored and whose potential is inestimable.