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| Home > Publications database > Identification and characterization of three novel phages against economically relevant plant pathogens and understanding the impact on the plant-pathogen interaction |
| Home > Publications database > Identification and characterization of three novel phages against economically relevant plant pathogens and understanding the impact on the plant-pathogen interaction |
| Conference Presentation (Other) | FZJ-2022-02507 |
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2022
Abstract: Rising world population and limited arable land pose a challenge for future agricultural demands. Yield lost due to plant pathogenic bacteria is estimated to account for 10% of our total yield losses. Additionally, classically used pest control agents like antibiotics lose their effect since more and more bacteria develop resistance due to over-use. Therefore, phages provide a sustainable and targeted solution for biocontrol in agriculture, which is still underutilized.Many plant pathogenic microbes are soil-born and target the plant root as an early entry point. However, the role of viruses shaping the plant microbiome along the root is not well understood and a better understanding of phage influence within the rhizosphere could lead to new application strategies. In this project we isolated novel phages for the economically relevant plant pathogenic bacteria Agrobacterium tumefaciens, Xanthomonas translucens and Pseudomonas syringae. The work aims to (i) characterize the phage- bacteria interaction and (ii) identify if and how the phage supressed the pathogen in a tripartite gnotobiotic system, with particular focus on the plant root. The results show the isolation and phenotypic characterization of phage Alfirin infecting Agrobacterium tumefaciens, phage Pfeifenkraut infecting Xanthomonas translucens, and phage Athelas infecting Pseudomonas syringae. All phages show a lytic lifestyle, which is supported by genome sequencing and phage infection curves, making them suitable candidates to test their potential in planta. Further, we used plaque assays, TEM, sequencing, and annotation of phage genes as well as infection experiments to validate our potential phage candidates in terms of suitability for biocontrol applications. To study the disease suppression in planta, we are using a Fabricated Ecosystem (EcoFAB), with slight modifications to optimize root growth conditions. Its gnotobiotic environment is constructed by fusing a fluidic camber on a microscope slide, both enclosed in a sterile container. This enables the investigation of the plant-pathogen interaction, as well as plant-phenotypic changes over time using non-invasive phenotyping and invasive harvests (for future molecular analyses). The plant-pathogen interaction has been established and undergone phenotyping to establish the timeline of disease progression. The experiments with phage as a third component show promising preliminary results and are ongoing.
Keyword(s): Basic research (1st) ; Biology (2nd)
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