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THE EFFECT OF AROMATIC METABOLISM IN THE FUNGAL PATHOGEN SCLEROTINIA SCLEROTIORUM (SSC) ON DETOXIFICATION AND PLANT COLONIZATION

Objective

Sclerotinia sclerotiorum(Ssc), the causative agent of Sclerotinia stem rotor white mold, is a broad host range necrotrophic fungal pathogen that infects nearly all dicotyledonous plants and has been noted on more than 400 crop species worldwide. Sscis a particular problem on soybeans, a major field crop in the US, and can cause devastating yield losses in conducive years. During our lab'sanalysis of susceptible and resistant soybean breeding lines, we found that aromatic compounds, including phenolic compounds, carboxylic acids, and aromatic alcohols were specifically accumulated in resistant tissue.In-vitro analysis of several of these compoundsshowed that they severely inhibit Ssc growth.The major goal of this proposal is to characterize the mechanisms used bySscin the detoxification of aromatic compounds both produced by the plant in response to infection and those constitutively present in plant tissue.Transcriptomic analysis ofSscduring infection identified two genes (SsAOXandSslac2) as putative candidates for this detoxification and early evidence from gene knockout mutants supports this role. Moving forward, we will work to investigate the role/importance that these genes play inSscdetoxification and virulence.Objective 1: Identify the aromatic compounds acting as likely substrates for these enzymes and demonstrate that they are directly metabolized.Objective 2: Investigate the subcellular localization of these enzymes during plant infection.Objective 3: Characterize the value of these detoxification enzymes as targets of host-induced gene silencing (HIGS) for the development of transgenic soybeans with robustSscresistance.

Investigators
Westrick, N.
Institution
University of Wisconsin - Madison
Start date
2021
End date
2023
Project number
WIS04025
Accession number
1026437
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