Plant infection by the fungus Botrytis: a battle between rot and soaps

Plant infection by the fungus Botrytis: a battle between rot and soaps

Prof. Dr. Jan Van Kan
Wageningen University & Research
The Netherlands

Botrytis cinerea is a plant pathogenic fungus with a necrotrophic life style and a very broad host range. The successful infection of host plants by Botrytis requires a delicate regulation of programmed cell death processes in the host. Host cell death is suppressed in early phases of infection and actively triggered once the fungus is established in the host tissue. I will discuss how effector proteins of necrotrophs may trigger plant cell death following an “inverse gene-for-gene interaction”. Subsequently, I will discuss our studies on the role of antifungal glycoalkaloids of tomato in conferring (partial) resistance to Botrytis. Finally, I will describe the multiple mechanisms by which Botrytis mitigates the fungitoxic activity of glycoalkaloids and thereby successfully infects tomato leaves

04 de octubre de 2024