scholarly journals Microbial threat– a growing challenge for plant biosecurity

2012 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon McKirdy ◽  
Brendan Rodoni ◽  
Jane Moran ◽  
Shashi Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Plant Pathogens ◽  
Market Access ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Production Costs ◽  
Microbial Pathogens ◽  
Global Food Security ◽  
Travel And Tourism ◽  
Increasing Risk ◽  
Global Food ◽  
Lower Production

Australia is relatively free from many of the plant pathogens that seriously impact on agricultural production and natural environment in other countries. This provides a valuable competitive advantage for Australia?s plant industries in terms of securing market access and maintaining lower production costs. The increasing growth in global trade, travel and tourism is exposing Australia?s plant industries and environment to ever-increasing risk of exotic microbial pathogens. At risk are approximately $14 billion per annum in crop exports, the environment and its associated tourism, the sustainability of regional communities with plant industries contributing approximately $25 billion annually, and indirectly animal and human health and safety. In addition, biosecurity threats are recognised as a serious risk to global food security.

scholarly journals NLR immune receptor-nanobody fusions confer plant disease resistance

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiorgos Kourelis ◽  
Clemence Marchal ◽  
Sophien Kamoun
Keyword(s):  
Plant Disease Resistance ◽  
Plant Disease ◽  
Plant Pathogens ◽  
Fluorescent Proteins ◽  
Plant Viruses ◽  
Immune Receptor ◽  
Global Food Security ◽  
Immune Receptors ◽  
Natural Components ◽  
Global Food

Plant pathogens cause recurrent epidemics that threaten crop yield and global food security. Efforts to retool the plant immune system have been limited to modifying natural components and can be nullified by the emergence of new pathogen races. Therefore, there is a need to develop made-to-order synthetic plant immune receptors with resistance tailored to the pathogen genotypes present in the field. Here we show that plant immune receptors can be used as scaffolds for VHH nanobody fusions that bind fluorescent proteins (FPs). The receptor-nanobody fusions signal in the presence of the corresponding FP and confer resistance against plant viruses expressing FPs. Given that nanobodies can be raised against virtually any molecule, immune receptor-nanobody fusions have the potential to generate resistance against all major plant pathogens and pests.

scholarly journals Nep1-like proteins as a target for plant pathogen control

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. e1009477
Author(s):  
Katja Pirc ◽  
Vesna Hodnik ◽  
Tina Snoj ◽  
Tea Lenarčič ◽  
Simon Caserman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plant Pathogens ◽  
Economic Losses ◽  
Ion Leakage ◽  
Tobacco Leaves ◽  
Global Food Security ◽  
Plant Infection ◽  
Promising Target ◽  
Pathogen Control ◽  
Global Food ◽  
Plant Plasma Membrane

The lack of efficient methods to control the major diseases of crops most important to agriculture leads to huge economic losses and seriously threatens global food security. Many of the most important microbial plant pathogens, including bacteria, fungi, and oomycetes, secrete necrosis- and ethylene-inducing peptide 1 (Nep1)-like proteins (NLPs), which critically contribute to the virulence and spread of the disease. NLPs are cytotoxic to eudicot plants, as they disturb the plant plasma membrane by binding to specific plant membrane sphingolipid receptors. Their pivotal role in plant infection and broad taxonomic distribution makes NLPs a promising target for the development of novel phytopharmaceutical compounds. To identify compounds that bind to NLPs from the oomycetes Pythium aphanidermatum and Phytophthora parasitica, a library of 587 small molecules, most of which are commercially unavailable, was screened by surface plasmon resonance. Importantly, compounds that exhibited the highest affinity to NLPs were also found to inhibit NLP-mediated necrosis in tobacco leaves and Phytophthora infestans growth on potato leaves. Saturation transfer difference-nuclear magnetic resonance and molecular modelling of the most promising compound, anthranilic acid derivative, confirmed stable binding to the NLP protein, which resulted in decreased necrotic activity and reduced ion leakage from tobacco leaves. We, therefore, confirmed that NLPs are an appealing target for the development of novel phytopharmaceutical agents and strategies, which aim to directly interfere with the function of these major microbial virulence factors. The compounds identified in this study represent lead structures for further optimization and antimicrobial product development.

The Genome Biology of Effector Gene Evolution in Filamentous Plant Pathogens

2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Sánchez-Vallet ◽  
Simone Fouché ◽  
Isabelle Fudal ◽  
Fanny E. Hartmann ◽  
Jessica L. Soyer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plant Pathogens ◽  
Population Genomics ◽  
Gene Evolution ◽  
Point Mutations ◽  
Repetitive Elements ◽  
Genome Biology ◽  
Global Food Security ◽  
Effector Genes ◽  
Genes Encoding ◽  
Global Food

Filamentous pathogens, including fungi and oomycetes, pose major threats to global food security. Crop pathogens cause damage by secreting effectors that manipulate the host to the pathogen's advantage. Genes encoding such effectors are among the most rapidly evolving genes in pathogen genomes. Here, we review how the major characteristics of the emergence, function, and regulation of effector genes are tightly linked to the genomic compartments where these genes are located in pathogen genomes. The presence of repetitive elements in these compartments is associated with elevated rates of point mutations and sequence rearrangements with a major impact on effector diversification. The expression of many effectors converges on an epigenetic control mediated by the presence of repetitive elements. Population genomics analyses showed that rapidly evolving pathogens show high rates of turnover at effector loci and display a mosaic in effector presence-absence polymorphism among strains. We conclude that effective pathogen containment strategies require a thorough understanding of the effector genome biology and the pathogen's potential for rapid adaptation.

Horticultural biosecurity.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynette Morgan
Keyword(s):  
Market Access ◽  
Production Costs ◽  
Travel And Tourism ◽  
Horticultural Crops ◽  
Pests And Diseases ◽  
Plant Pests ◽  
Everyday Activities ◽  
Local Species ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
Natural Dispersal

Abstract Horticultural biosecurity is a term used to describe regulations and processes set in place to protect countries, regions or individual production properties against the introduction and spread of new pests and diseases. A further objective of biosecurity measures is to effectively identify and prevent the spread (preferably eliminate) of any outbreak of alien pests and diseases before they become widely established in a new environment. Effective biosecurity aims to protect the economy, environment and community from the negative impacts of inadvertent or deliberate introductions of new plant pests and diseases. FAO has determined that biosecurity is a term that encompasses policy and regulation to protect agriculture, food and the environment from biological risk (FAO, 2003). Plant pests are organisms that can cause considerable damage to horticultural crops, reduce yields and quality, affect trade and market access and significantly increase production costs. Biosecurity has become an increasingly important topic at both a grower and at a national and international level. As globalisation and world trade has rapidly increased, fresh produce is routinely shipped from the production site large distances to distant markets. Furthermore, new pest and pathogens may be spread through natural dispersal (such as wind or water), or through everyday activities including travel and tourism, imports and exports of non-horticultural goods, mail and freight systems, on machinery, as seed contaminants, and via many other forms of introduction. This opens numerous avenues for the transfer of crop pests and pathogens to new regions and into new environments where native and other local species as well as horticultural plants can be negatively affected.

scholarly journals The Age of Effectors: Genome-Based Discovery and Applications

2016 ◽  
Vol 106 (10) ◽  
pp. 1206-1212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hesham A. Y. Gibriel ◽  
Bart P. H. J. Thomma ◽  
Michael F. Seidl
Keyword(s):  
Plant Pathogen ◽  
Plant Pathogens ◽  
Gene Annotation ◽  
Functional Characterization ◽  
Resistance Breeding ◽  
Infection Process ◽  
Microbial Pathogens ◽  
Global Food Security ◽  
Pathogen Effector ◽  
Pathogen Populations

Microbial pathogens cause devastating diseases on economically and ecologically important plant species, threatening global food security, and causing billions of dollars of losses annually. During the infection process, pathogens secrete so-called effectors that support host colonization, often by deregulating host immune responses. Over the last decades, much of the research on molecular plant-microbe interactions has focused on the identification and functional characterization of such effectors. The increasing availability of sequenced plant pathogen genomes has enabled genomics-based discovery of effector candidates. Nevertheless, identification of full plant pathogen effector repertoires is often hampered by erroneous gene annotation and the localization effector genes in genomic regions that are notoriously difficult to assemble. Here, we argue that recent advances in genome sequencing technologies, genome assembly, gene annotation, as well as effector identification methods hold promise to disclose complete and correct effector repertoires. This allows to exploit complete effector repertoires, and knowledge of their diversity within pathogen populations, to develop durable and sustainable resistance breeding strategies, disease control, and management of plant pathogens.

scholarly journals Divergent abiotic spectral pathways unravel pathogen stress signals across species

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
P. J. Zarco-Tejada ◽  
T. Poblete ◽  
C. Camino ◽  
V. Gonzalez-Dugo ◽  
R. Calderon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plant Pathogens ◽  
Socioeconomic Impact ◽  
Screening Methods ◽  
Yield Losses ◽  
Global Food Security ◽  
Plant Pest ◽  
Physiological Alterations ◽  
Food Deficit ◽  
Stress Signals ◽  
Global Food

AbstractPlant pathogens pose increasing threats to global food security, causing yield losses that exceed 30% in food-deficit regions. Xylella fastidiosa (Xf) represents the major transboundary plant pest and one of the world’s most damaging pathogens in terms of socioeconomic impact. Spectral screening methods are critical to detect non-visual symptoms of early infection and prevent spread. However, the subtle pathogen-induced physiological alterations that are spectrally detectable are entangled with the dynamics of abiotic stresses. Here, using airborne spectroscopy and thermal scanning of areas covering more than one million trees of different species, infections and water stress levels, we reveal the existence of divergent pathogen- and host-specific spectral pathways that can disentangle biotic-induced symptoms. We demonstrate that uncoupling this biotic–abiotic spectral dynamics diminishes the uncertainty in the Xf detection to below 6% across different hosts. Assessing these deviating pathways against another harmful vascular pathogen that produces analogous symptoms, Verticillium dahliae, the divergent routes remained pathogen- and host-specific, revealing detection accuracies exceeding 92% across pathosystems. These urgently needed hyperspectral methods advance early detection of devastating pathogens to reduce the billions in crop losses worldwide.

GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY AMID THE GLOBAL CRISIS

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (10) ◽  
pp. 134-141
Author(s):  
P. M. TARANOV ◽  
◽  
A. S. PANASYUK ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Global Food Security ◽  
Food Problem ◽  
Supply Problem ◽  
Coronavirus Infection ◽  
Food Security Indicators ◽  
Security Indicators ◽  
Global Food

The authors assess the prospects for solving the global food problem based on an analysis of the dynamics of food security indicators at the global and regional levels. The global food problem at work refers to the growing population of a planet affected by hunger and other forms of malnutrition. The food security situation has worsened for five years - in 2015–2019, and the COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated the food supply problem. The prevalence of moderate to severe food insecurity has affected more than 25% of the world's population. In lowincome countries, malnutrition affects more than 58% of the population. Food security is threatened by the consequences of the spread of coronavirus infection in the short term. In the medium and long term, climate change and the crisis in the governance of the world economy are the greatest threats. Modern international economic institutions are unable to withstand the prospect of declining global food security.

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