Project
Molecular biology of banana Black Sigatoka disease
Pseudocercospora fijiensis is the causal agent of Black Leaf Streak disease or Black Sigatoka Disease, the most destructive and costliest foliar disease of banana worldwide. The disease affects many banana varieties including cooking bananas that serve as a staple food for millions of people worldwide.
Hypothesis
The infection process has a long biotrophic phase, and after three to four weeks the fungus switches to a necrotrophic phase. In this stage of the disease characteristic necrotic streaks appear on the leaves. We hypothesize that during the biotrophic and necrotrophic phase effector proteins are secreted that modulate host responses and induce host cell death, respectively. Host plant recognition of biotrophic effectors as well as insensitivity of the host to necrotrophic effectors confers (partial) resistance to the fungus.
Research aims
- Identify effector proteins from P. fijiensis
- Use these effectors to screen for resistance in banana germplasm
Used techniques
- Comparative genomics to identify genetic diversity of effectors
- Transcriptome analysis during infection to assess expression of effector genes
- Fungal transformation to create knockout mutants and test the influence of effectors on virulence
- Validation of effector proteins by heterologous expression
- Proteomic analysis of the fungal secretome for effector identification
Supervisors
Please contact us to check the availability of this thesis project.