About this Research Topic
Fungal pathogens are the chief contributor to severe plant diseases, significantly affecting the productivity and quality of the crops. With the occurrence of pandemic diseases in the 21st century, it is expected fungal pathogens will cause a significant portion of emerging diseases. Thus it is imperative to devise novel strategies and discover novel target molecules to generate next-generation disease-resistant crops.
During the arms race between the host plant and fungus, these pathogens have evolved and adopted different infection styles, such as necrotrophic and biotrophic. A critical event during fungus infection is colonization governed by various effector molecules. The fungus often secretes effectors to evade the host defense and alter plant physiology to facilitate nutrient uptake. They serve at the crucial junctures between the interaction zone of hyphae and plant cells, or are sometimes transferred to the host. Fungal effectors present an enormous repertoire of target molecules that promote fungal compatibility and virulence. Therefore increasing our knowledge about common susceptibility node targets, mechanisms of virulence, and their evolution will help us better understand infection mechanisms and devise strategies to better combat the ever-evolving pathogens. In the era of genome editing, target identification of fungal effectors will help to precisely engineer the metabolic pathways assisting the pathogen in establishing the infection.
In this research topic, we will cover the latest insights on the role of fungal effectors in plant infection and strategies for plant defense. We encourage research by leading pathologists and scientists across the globe to contribute research about molecular mechanisms associated with fungal effectors, their evolution, metabolic pathways hijacked by the fungus during plant infection, novel plant chaperones, peptides targeting the fungal effectors, horizontal transfer of fungal effectors, plant susceptibility factors as candidates for genome editing, and in-silico methods for identification of fungal effectors across the fungal species.
• Function and mechanism of fungal effectors in a plant disease
• Fungal effectors in plant-pathogen interaction
• Transfer mechanism of fungal effectors
• Plant chaperones and encoded peptides targeting fungal effectors
• Genome editing of Susceptibility factors to develop breeding lines
• Metabolic pathways targeted by fungal effectors
• Bioinformatics analysis for software development and databases associated with fungal effectors.
During the arms race between the host plant and fungus, these pathogens have evolved and adopted different infection styles, such as necrotrophic and biotrophic. A critical event during fungus infection is colonization governed by various effector molecules. The fungus often secretes effectors to evade the host defense and alter plant physiology to facilitate nutrient uptake. They serve at the crucial junctures between the interaction zone of hyphae and plant cells, or are sometimes transferred to the host. Fungal effectors present an enormous repertoire of target molecules that promote fungal compatibility and virulence. Therefore increasing our knowledge about common susceptibility node targets, mechanisms of virulence, and their evolution will help us better understand infection mechanisms and devise strategies to better combat the ever-evolving pathogens. In the era of genome editing, target identification of fungal effectors will help to precisely engineer the metabolic pathways assisting the pathogen in establishing the infection.
In this research topic, we will cover the latest insights on the role of fungal effectors in plant infection and strategies for plant defense. We encourage research by leading pathologists and scientists across the globe to contribute research about molecular mechanisms associated with fungal effectors, their evolution, metabolic pathways hijacked by the fungus during plant infection, novel plant chaperones, peptides targeting the fungal effectors, horizontal transfer of fungal effectors, plant susceptibility factors as candidates for genome editing, and in-silico methods for identification of fungal effectors across the fungal species.
• Function and mechanism of fungal effectors in a plant disease
• Fungal effectors in plant-pathogen interaction
• Transfer mechanism of fungal effectors
• Plant chaperones and encoded peptides targeting fungal effectors
• Genome editing of Susceptibility factors to develop breeding lines
• Metabolic pathways targeted by fungal effectors
• Bioinformatics analysis for software development and databases associated with fungal effectors.
Keywords: Fungal effectors, molecular mechanism of disease resistance, susceptibility factors, host-pathogen interaction, and plant chaperones
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