Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE190100066
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$362,000.00
Summary
Uncovering how rust fungi cause devastating plant diseases. This project aims to generate a new understanding of how rust fungi infect plant cells using single-cell sequencing technologies and data-driven investigations. This project expects to discover conserved rust infection strategies and the first characterisations of mechanisms that transfer virulence proteins from the fungus to the plant. Innovations and new knowledge from this project will be of high-impact and of benefit to the Australi ....Uncovering how rust fungi cause devastating plant diseases. This project aims to generate a new understanding of how rust fungi infect plant cells using single-cell sequencing technologies and data-driven investigations. This project expects to discover conserved rust infection strategies and the first characterisations of mechanisms that transfer virulence proteins from the fungus to the plant. Innovations and new knowledge from this project will be of high-impact and of benefit to the Australian and international community through knowledge discovery about conserved rust infection mechanisms. This project expects to deliver strategies for effective rust disease management that will in the future lessen the impact of rust diseases on agriculture and natural ecosystems in Australia.Read moreRead less
Protein trafficking pathways in fungal rust pathogens of plants. This project aims to investigate protein trafficking pathways in fungal rusts of plants. These are devastating diseases that cause major losses in agricultural crops including wheat. Little is known of how these fungi form long and intimate relationships with plants to extract their nutrients. Using both model and agriculturally important fungi, the project will try to identify proteins that are transferred within the fungus and to ....Protein trafficking pathways in fungal rust pathogens of plants. This project aims to investigate protein trafficking pathways in fungal rusts of plants. These are devastating diseases that cause major losses in agricultural crops including wheat. Little is known of how these fungi form long and intimate relationships with plants to extract their nutrients. Using both model and agriculturally important fungi, the project will try to identify proteins that are transferred within the fungus and to the plant host to modify the infection. It will also identify fungal proteins needed to deliver trafficked proteins to plants. These discoveries ultimately may be translated into control strategies for these costly diseases.Read moreRead less
Understanding the molecular basis of fungal rust diseases in plants. This project aims to utilise structural biology, biochemistry and molecular biology approaches to substantially deepen our understanding of rust fungi-plant interactions. Fungal rust pathogens cause disease and significant yield losses in our most important food crops. During colonisation, rust fungi utilise secreted effector proteins to cause plant disease. Effectors can also be recognised by plant immunity receptors, leading ....Understanding the molecular basis of fungal rust diseases in plants. This project aims to utilise structural biology, biochemistry and molecular biology approaches to substantially deepen our understanding of rust fungi-plant interactions. Fungal rust pathogens cause disease and significant yield losses in our most important food crops. During colonisation, rust fungi utilise secreted effector proteins to cause plant disease. Effectors can also be recognised by plant immunity receptors, leading to resistance. The intended outcome of this work is to generate knowledge that can be used for the development of disease management and engineering strategies to protect plants from rust fungi. This should provide significant benefits to agricultural productivity and global food security.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE210100323
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$431,000.00
Summary
Synthetic biology to engineer novel disease resistance in cereal crops. This project aims to engineer disease resistance in crops to dangerous fungal pathogens. The strategy is to exploit our knowledge of the plant immune system using structural biology and directed evolution of natural resistance genes, improving their ability to recognise and respond to fungal attack. Fungal pathogens cause some of the most harmful crop diseases in Australia and worldwide. The rapid evolution of fungi overcome ....Synthetic biology to engineer novel disease resistance in cereal crops. This project aims to engineer disease resistance in crops to dangerous fungal pathogens. The strategy is to exploit our knowledge of the plant immune system using structural biology and directed evolution of natural resistance genes, improving their ability to recognise and respond to fungal attack. Fungal pathogens cause some of the most harmful crop diseases in Australia and worldwide. The rapid evolution of fungi overcomes natural plant resistance and management of these diseases is a major challenge to agriculture. Expected outcomes of the project include engineered wheat plants with more effective disease resistance, reducing fungicide usage. This project intends to accelerate crop breeding and contribute to world food security.Read moreRead less
Factors causing wheat stripe rust epidemics. This project aims to tackle wheat stripe rust, one of the most important fungal diseases of wheat in Australia, causing losses of up to $125 million a year. This project expects to gain insights into the fungal evolution and the molecular mechanism that causes hyper-virulent pathogen isolates. The expected outcome is to identify and characterise multiple genetic factors in the pathogen that contribute to wheat stripe rust epidemics in Australia. This ....Factors causing wheat stripe rust epidemics. This project aims to tackle wheat stripe rust, one of the most important fungal diseases of wheat in Australia, causing losses of up to $125 million a year. This project expects to gain insights into the fungal evolution and the molecular mechanism that causes hyper-virulent pathogen isolates. The expected outcome is to identify and characterise multiple genetic factors in the pathogen that contribute to wheat stripe rust epidemics in Australia. This project will contribute to improved disease management strategies to contain wheat stripe rust, resulting in higher wheat yields, reduced application of fungicides and increased revenue for Australian wheat farmers.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE170100151
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$372,000.00
Summary
Enhancing resistance to wheat stripe rust disease. This project aims to investigate why wheat succumbs to stripe rust fungus, a grave threat to global wheat production. Wheat is the primary agricultural and revenue crop of Australia, cultivated since early European settlement. Severe disease epidemics arise when the fast evolving rust pathogen breaks down host plant genetic resistance. This project will investigate the molecular mechanisms of host-pathogen recognition and the consequences of pat ....Enhancing resistance to wheat stripe rust disease. This project aims to investigate why wheat succumbs to stripe rust fungus, a grave threat to global wheat production. Wheat is the primary agricultural and revenue crop of Australia, cultivated since early European settlement. Severe disease epidemics arise when the fast evolving rust pathogen breaks down host plant genetic resistance. This project will investigate the molecular mechanisms of host-pathogen recognition and the consequences of pathogen variation to determine the causes of resistance breakdown. The expected outcome is robust rust-resistant wheat cultivars to maintain global food security.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE160100893
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$364,000.00
Summary
How do effector proteins from necrotrophic fungi cause disease in plants? This project aims to develop new knowledge to support the development of strategies to protect wheat from necrotrophic fungi. Crop losses caused by plant diseases are a significant economic, environmental and social challenge in a world facing increased demands on food, fibre and biofuels. Parastagonospora nodorum is an economically important necrotrophic fungal pathogen of wheat. During infection, P. nodorum uses effector ....How do effector proteins from necrotrophic fungi cause disease in plants? This project aims to develop new knowledge to support the development of strategies to protect wheat from necrotrophic fungi. Crop losses caused by plant diseases are a significant economic, environmental and social challenge in a world facing increased demands on food, fibre and biofuels. Parastagonospora nodorum is an economically important necrotrophic fungal pathogen of wheat. During infection, P. nodorum uses effector proteins to target sensitivity gene products in wheat. This process, known as necrotrophic effector-triggered susceptibility, results in plant cell death and disease. This project aims to investigate the structural basis of necrotrophic effector-triggered susceptibility in the P. nodorum – wheat pathosystem.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE100100078
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$600,000.00
Summary
Multiphoton confocal microscope. Recent developments in light microscopy have revolutionised modern molecular and cellular biology. Dramatic improvements in microscope hardware and software and in the range of fluorescent markers used to tag selected cellular components now provide new and exciting opportunities to localise and determine the function of ions and molecules not only in preserved samples but also, most excitingly, in living cells. The proposed multiphoton confocal microscope will ....Multiphoton confocal microscope. Recent developments in light microscopy have revolutionised modern molecular and cellular biology. Dramatic improvements in microscope hardware and software and in the range of fluorescent markers used to tag selected cellular components now provide new and exciting opportunities to localise and determine the function of ions and molecules not only in preserved samples but also, most excitingly, in living cells. The proposed multiphoton confocal microscope will allow researchers in Canberra to obtain high quality images of static and moving components in living cells and tissues and will facilitate the discovery of new knowledge that contributes to our understanding and control of development and disease in both plants and animals.Read moreRead less
Functional characterisation of the necrotrophic effector proteins Tox1 and Tox3 from the wheat pathogen Stagonospora nodorum. Fungal pathogens cost the Australian agricultural industry over one billion dollars per year. This project will build upon recent key advances to provide a fundamental basis on how fungal pathogens cause disease. The results from this study will promote future advances in disease management with the aim of securing Australian wheat supplies.
Isolation and functional characterisation of a pathogen meta effector able to inhibit detection of multiple disease effectors by resistant plants. The rust fungi are a major economic threat to crop production in Australia. This project will investigate the molecular mechanism used by a rust fungus to prevent detection of multiple disease-inducing proteins by resistant plants and generate knowledge that will lead to the development of new and more effective disease control strategies.