Integrated pest and disease control systems in agriculture: study of plant proteins with antifungal activity

• Grant number: 19/15488-5
• Support type: Regular Research Grants
• Duration: January 01, 2020 - December 31, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Genetics - Plant Genetics
• Cooperation agreement: CONFAP - National Council of State Research Support Foundations
• Principal researcher: Márcio de Castro Silva Filho
• Grantee: Márcio de Castro Silva Filho
• Home Institution: Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALQ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil
• Assoc. researchers: Daniel Scherer de Moura

Abstract

Despite the antifungal action of sugarwin proteins, fungi of the genus Colletotrichum and Fusarium are still successful causing infections in sugarcane and other plants. Therefore, it is important to broaden the understanding of the virulence determinants of these fungi. Extracellular molecules are very important for the infectious cycle of several fungal species. Recently, it has been shown that many of these molecules, in particular enzymes and RNA, reach the extracellular environment by active transport mediated by extracellular vesicles (EVs). These EVs have been implicated in many interactions between organisms and are involved in pathogenicity (Rodrigues, et al., 2011, Alves et al., 2019 and Herkert et al., 2019). It has been shown that there is transfer of RNAs between pathogenic fungi and plants and vice versa and is mediated by vesicle transport (Cai et al., 2018). The vesicles, therefore, are important candidates to act as mediators of some of these interactions between fungi and plants and are important in the control of plant diseases (Wang, et al., 2017; Bielska & May, 2019). Considering the importance of EVs in several processes of interaction between organisms, it is important to analyze a possible interaction of these EVs with sugarwin proteins.In this context, the project aims to:(i) to evaluate the spectrum of plant defense protein activity in phytopathogenic fungi of agronomic interest and in entomopathogenic and myopathogenic fungi;(ii) to deepen the knowledge of the mechanisms of action of sugarwin proteins in filamentous fungi;(iii) to analyze possible effects of these proteins on other interaction mechanisms such as extracellular vesicles (EVs) and mycoviruses. (AU)