ORCID Profile
0000-0002-2732-6911
Current Organisation
Wageningen University
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Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 07-11-2019
DOI: 10.1038/S41598-019-53309-9
Abstract: An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 24-02-2023
DOI: 10.1038/S41467-023-36674-Y
Abstract: Human activity impacts the evolutionary trajectories of many species worldwide. Global trade of agricultural goods contributes to the dispersal of pathogens reshaping their genetic makeup and providing opportunities for virulence gains. Understanding how pathogens surmount control strategies and cope with new climates is crucial to predicting the future impact of crop pathogens. Here, we address this by assembling a global thousand-genome panel of Zymoseptoria tritici , a major fungal pathogen of wheat reported in all production areas worldwide. We identify the global invasion routes and ongoing genetic exchange of the pathogen among wheat-growing regions. We find that the global expansion was accompanied by increased activity of transposable elements and weakened genomic defenses. Finally, we find significant standing variation for adaptation to new climates encountered during the global spread. Our work shows how large population genomic panels enable deep insights into the evolutionary trajectory of a major crop pathogen.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 20-11-2018
DOI: 10.1038/S41598-018-35223-8
Abstract: Zymoseptoria tritici is the causal agent of Septoria tritici blotch (STB) disease of wheat. Z. tritici is an apoplastic fungal pathogen, which does not penetrate plant cells at any stage of infection, and has a long initial period of symptomless leaf colonisation. During this phase it is unclear to what extent the fungus can access host plant nutrients or communicate with plant cells. Several important primary and secondary metabolite pathways in fungi are regulated by the post-translational activator phosphopantetheinyl transferase (Ppt) which provides an essential co-factor for lysine biosynthesis and the activities of non-ribosomal peptide synthases (NRPS) and polyketide synthases (PKS). To investigate the relative importance of lysine biosynthesis, NRPS-based siderophore production and PKS-based DHN melanin biosynthesis, we generated deletion mutants of ZtPpt . The ∆ ZtPpt strains were auxotrophic for lysine and iron, non-melanised and non-pathogenic on wheat. Deletion of the three target genes likely affected by ZtPpt loss of function ( Aar - lysine Nrps1 -siderophore and Pks1 - melanin), highlighted that lysine auxotrophy was the main contributing factor for loss of virulence, with no reduction caused by loss of siderophore production or melanisation. This reveals Ppt, and the lysine biosynthesis pathway, as potential targets for fungicides effective against Z. tritici .
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 15-02-2011
DOI: 10.1038/NCOMMS1189
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 27-08-2022
DOI: 10.1101/2022.08.26.505378
Abstract: Human activity impacts the evolutionary trajectories of many species worldwide. Global trade of agricultural goods contributes to the dispersal of pathogens reshaping their genetic makeup and providing opportunities for virulence gains. Understanding how pathogens surmount control strategies and cope with new climates is crucial to predicting the future impact of crop pathogens. Here, we address this by assembling a global thousand-genome panel of Zymoseptoria tritici , a major fungal pathogen of wheat reported in all production areas worldwide. We identify the global invasion routes and ongoing genetic exchange of the pathogen among wheat-growing regions. We find that the global expansion was accompanied by increased activity of transposable elements and weakened genomic defenses. Finally, we find significant standing variation for adaptation to new climates encountered during the global spread. Our work shows how large population genomic panels enable deep insights into the evolutionary trajectory of a major crop pathogen.
No related grants have been discovered for Gerrit HJ Kema.