BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk// X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Crop Science Seminar: Dissection of Wheat-Septoria Interactions - Dr Kostya Kanyuka\, Head of Pest &\; Pathogen Research\, NIAB DTSTART:20220316T103000Z DTEND:20220316T113000Z UID:TALK171788@talks.cam.ac.uk DESCRIPTION:Septoria tritici blotch (STB)\, is one the most important foli ar diseases of wheat in the UK and globally. This disease is caused by the ascomycete fungus Zymoseptoria tritici (also known as Septoria tritici)\, a pathogen with a very interesting infection biology which includes penet ration of leaves exclusively through stomata followed by colonisation of t he extracellular spaces (apoplast). Moreover\, Z. tritici could be describ ed as a “latent necrotroph”. That is\, this fungus behaves as a biotro ph during the first prolonged asymptomatic infection phase lasting >10-14 days and then rapidly transitions to necrotrophy killing the infected whea t leaf cells\, which release the nutrients required for the fungus to prol iferate and sporulate. What induces the transition to necrotrophy is an im portant big question in the biology of this pathogen\, which currently rem ains unanswered. In the first part of my talk\, I will pose hypotheses to explain this phenomenon and present and discuss data from the experiments addressing these hypotheses. I will also describe the plant virus-based fu nctional genomics tools and resources we established and/or developed to a id the experimentation\, which incidentally helped accelerate the pace of gene discovery in the wheat - Z. tritici pathosystem (and beyond).\n \nMan agement of STB in wheat traditionally relies on fungicides that are typica lly applied thrice during the growing season. This repeated application ha s led to the fungus evolving resistance to all major classes of fungicides . With the additional problem of some of the potent chemistries being phas ed out due to the changes in regulations\, significant efforts were put on breeding for disease resistance to Z. tritici in recent years. Understand ing the mechanisms of natural disease resistance operating in wheat agains t this important fungal pathogen\, both at mechanistic and molecular level s\, is also very important as this knowledge could help develop new\, effe ctive STB disease control strategies. In the second part of my talk\, I wi ll focus on Stb6 – the wheat disease resistance gene that has been deplo yed by breeders for several decades. Interestingly\, by contrast to the ma ny known intracellular NLR-type disease resistance genes\, Stb6 controls r esistance without cell death. We have recently isolated this gene and show ed that it encodes a cell wall-associated receptor-like kinase (WAK) prote in resembling extracellular immunity receptors that often recognise conser ved pathogen derived molecules\, and this fits well with the pathogen’s apoplastic lifestyle. However\, Stb6 somehow or rather recognises the high ly variable small\, secreted protein produced by Z. tritici. I will presen t our latest experimental data that has led us to propose a speculative hy pothesis regarding the molecular mechanism of Stb6-mediated resistance.\n\ nDue to having to go online\, we are restricting the talks to University o f Cambridge and alumni to keep them as informal as possible.\n\nContact re ception@plantsci.cam.ac.uk for a Zoom link prior to a talk if you are not on our mailing list.\n LOCATION:Online END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR