The role of heterochromatin in regulating fungal infection and evolution

About This Grant

A genome is like a book containing all the information an organism needs for life on Earth. Just as books are organized into chapters, paragraphs, and sentences, and follow rules that help us interpret their meaning, genomes also have organization and rules that determine how and when genetic information is used. However, unlike books, many of the rules governing genome function remain unknown. This project will uncover those rules and generate new insight into how fungi live, adapt, and cause disease. To achieve these goals, scientists at the undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate levels will receiving mentoring and training in advanced molecular biology and genomics, bolstering the nation’s scientific workforce. Additionally, elementary students and the public will be engaged through hands-on science activities to promoter science education and community engagement. This research will advance our understanding of the genome biology of filamentous fungal pathogens and lead to innovative strategies for protecting crops and animals from fungal infection, which is critical for food security, public safety, and the economy. Fungal pathogens of plants utilize a broad array of secreted proteins and small molecules, termed effectors, to alter host immunity or cellular physiology to promote infection. Transcriptional regulation of effectors and effector evolution play a critical role in pathogen success, but we lack mechanistic understanding of these two processes. Additionally, many effector coding regions have heterochromatic features, such as lower gene density, lower transcriptional activity, and specific epigenetic marks, but the reason for this association remains unknown. Do features of heterochromatin drive fungal pathogenesis and genome variation, or is heterochromatin a genomic bystander of fungal pathobiology? The proposed research will disentangle causality and correlation between effectors and heterochromatin using molecular genetics and bioinformatics to test falsifiable hypotheses. The research will determine the contribution of histone modifications to in planta transcriptional dynamics, characterize the causality between heterochromatin and DNA mutation, and identify how the epigenome impacts a newly discovered class of fungal mobile DNA, termed Starships. Findings from the research will inform our basic understanding of the genetics and genomics of filamentous fungal pathogens. This knowledge can impact critical topics related to genome evolution, protecting crops and livestock, and developing novel synthetic genomes. This project is jointly funded by Genetic Mechanisms program in the Molecular and Cellular Biosciences Division and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.