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Arabidopsis genes involved in the protection against toxic exudates of the fungal symbiont Trichoderma uncovered

Andersson, Jesper (2018) BIOK01 20181
Degree Projects in Biology
Popular Abstract
Save the world with Trichoderma

Today a lot of people are talking about the health benefits of consuming probiotics and the importance of having a good gut biome, but did you know that this is also be true for plants? A lot of people may have heard about the beneficial effect of mycorrhizal fungi and nitrogen fixing bacteria, but few have heard about Trichoderma.

The fungus Trichoderma is a hero among soil microbes which will sense and grow towards the roots of stressed plants and help make their lives better. It helps the plant cope with drought and salty soils, but will also aid in everyday tasks such as making sure it gets enough antioxidants or increase nutrient availability.

Not only will it protect the plant from harsh... (More)
Save the world with Trichoderma

Today a lot of people are talking about the health benefits of consuming probiotics and the importance of having a good gut biome, but did you know that this is also be true for plants? A lot of people may have heard about the beneficial effect of mycorrhizal fungi and nitrogen fixing bacteria, but few have heard about Trichoderma.

The fungus Trichoderma is a hero among soil microbes which will sense and grow towards the roots of stressed plants and help make their lives better. It helps the plant cope with drought and salty soils, but will also aid in everyday tasks such as making sure it gets enough antioxidants or increase nutrient availability.

Not only will it protect the plant from harsh environments, but will also fend off harmful microbes. It actively grows towards other fungi and can literally strangle them (see picture), all while bombarding the intruder with various types of antibiotics.

There is just one thing, though. One of the compounds released by Trichoderma is called alamethicin. Alamethicin is not only deadly to pathogens, but it is also highly toxic to the host plant! That didn’t make any sense until researchers at Lund University discovered that you can actually make the plant immune to the substance, and it’s very simple. All you need to do is treat the plant with some cellulase, which is another compound released by Trichoderma, and alamethicin is no longer toxic to the plant.

That’s neat, but how does it work? That’s where I come in. In my research I use plants that have had different functions disabled, one by one. Then I take these plants and see if I can still make them immune to alamethicin. If I can not, then the disabled part must be of importance, right?
Trichoderma has great potential for alleviating stress of crops in harsh environments, like in the dry soils found in many developing countries. Field trials have shown great yield improvement under various conditions, but not all plants reap the same benefits. Therefore, it is of great economical importance to understand and continue investigating how this mechanism works. It seems like Trichoderma might be a very powerful tool, but we’ve just started learning how to use it.


Bachelor’s degree project in Biology, 15 credits, 2018
Department of Biology, Lund University
Supervisor: Allan Rasmusson and Bradley Dotson
Plant Biology research group (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Andersson, Jesper
supervisor
organization
course
BIOK01 20181
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
language
English
id
8962343
date added to LUP
2018-10-25 13:39:17
date last changed
2018-10-25 13:39:17
@misc{8962343,
  author       = {{Andersson, Jesper}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Arabidopsis genes involved in the protection against toxic exudates of the fungal symbiont Trichoderma uncovered}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}