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OPENING LECTURE
Fusarium pathogenomics: How to become a cereal
killer?
J. Manners, D. Gardiner, K. Kazan, S. Chakraborty, L. Covarelli, J.
Sperschneider, J. Taylor
CSIRO Plant Industry, Brisbane, Canberra and Perth, Australia
E-mail: john.manners@csiro.au
Many Fusarium pathogens cause devastating diseases on cereals such as wheat
and barley. Although Fusarium head blight (FHB) is a well studied disease, these
cereal hosts are also susceptible to crown and root rot diseases caused by the
same Fusarium pathogens. Several wheat-infecting Fusarium pathogens produce
mycotoxins, and in some instances, these may be important for virulence. In
addition, in FHB disease, toxin accumulation in infected grain can threaten human
and animal health and restrict trade. In the last few years, significant progress has
been made towards a better understanding of the processes involved in
pathogenesis and toxin biosynthesis in cereal-infecting Fusaria, as well as host
resistance mechanisms, often through the use of functional and comparative
genomic analyses. Current sequencing technologies make obtaining the basic
genome sequences of cereal-infecting Fusaria a relatively trivial exercise and the
availability of the gold standard sequence of F. graminearum provides an
essential reference. Studies of several newly acquired genomic sequences of
Fusarium cereal pathogens have indicated that a significant part of the genome
and gene content vary between species and isolates. Comparative genomic
analysis, either by using sequence-based BLAST analyses or an alternative novel
molecular pattern analysis across the many sequenced genomes of other fungi,
has provided new opportunities to identify genes that have roles in virulence on
cereal hosts. In several instances, these genes have interesting evolutionary
histories, involving multiple horizontal transfer events. These studies are
suggestive of a cereal-infecting pathogen pan-genome. Parts of this pan-genome
appear to be shared between diverse pathogens. Multiple genic combinations
have been added to the pan-genome through evolutionary time to provide new
virulence capabilities that allow adaptation to cereal host types. In this
presentation, we will review these new advances and also discuss future research
gaps that need bridging for the development of sustainable plant protection
strategies against Fusarium pathogens.
Keywords: Fusarium, pathogenomics
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