Integral analysis of infection and mutation mechanisms in the rice blast fungus

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17H05021
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (A)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Plant protection science
• Research Institution: Tokyo University of Science
• Principal Investigator: Arazoe Takayuki 東京理科大学, 理工学部応用生物科学科, 助教 (40749975)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: イネいもち病菌 / ゲノム編集 / ゲノム進化 / 病原性変異 / 感染生理 / ゲノム再編成 / ゲノムワイド遺伝子機能解析

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The rice blast fungus Pyricularia oryzae causes rice blast. This fungus have acquired drug resistance and new pathogenicity to resistant cultivars by changing their own genomes, which have become an important problems. In this study, we tried to understand how pathogens infect and interact with host plants as well as when, where, and how pathogenic (genome) evolution occurs by using genome editing technology.
We succeeded in reproducing and inducing the pathogenic mutation, and showed that the mutation of this fungus is induced under various stress conditions.
Developed novel high-throughput functional genomics were enabled to clarify various signal transduction mechanisms related to stress response and genome rearrangement mechanism in this fungus .

Free Research Field

植物保護科学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

“植物 (人) と病原菌のいたちごっこ”は今現在も続いており，作物の安定生産には「病原菌がどのようなメカニズムで植物に感染 (相互作用) するのか」，「病原菌がいつ・どこで・どのように進化 (変異) するのか」を理解することが必要不可欠です。本研究成果は，従来の防除法として見落とされていた病原菌の変異メカニズムとその抑制という新たな防除法確立の一助となると考えられる。新たに開発したゲノム編集技術とその関連技術は，植物病原菌や他の糸状菌 (カビ) のゲノム機能解析や有用微生物の育種を大幅に加速させる可能性を有する。