How fungi recognize (and infect) plants | Mennat El Ghalid

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"Will the blight end the chestnut?

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The farmers rather guess not.

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It keeps smouldering at the roots

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And sending up new shoots

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Till another parasite

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Shall come to end the blight."

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At the beginning of the 20th century,

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the eastern American chestnut population,
counting nearly four billion trees,

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was completely decimated
by a fungal infection.

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Fungi are the most destructive
pathogens of plants,

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including crops of major
economic importance.

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Can you imagine that today,

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crop losses associated
with fungal infection

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are estimated at billions of dollars
per year, worldwide?

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That represents enough food calories
to feed half a billion people.

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And this leads to severe repercussions,

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including episodes of famine
in developing countries,

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large reduction of income
for farmers and distributors,

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high prices for consumers

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and risk of exposure to mycotoxin,
poison produced by fungi.

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The problems that we face

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is that the current method
used to prevent and treat

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those dreadful diseases,

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such as genetic control,
exploiting natural sources of resistance,

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crop rotation or seed
treatment, among others,

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are still limited or ephemeral.

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They have to be constantly renewed.

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Therefore, we urgently need
to develop more efficient strategies

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and for this, research is required
to identify biological mechanisms

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that can be targeted
by novel antifungal treatments.

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One feature of fungi
is that they cannot move

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and only grow by extension
to form a sophisticated network,

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the mycelium.

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In 1884, Anton de Bary,
the father of plant pathology,

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was the first to presume
that fungi are guided by signals

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sent out from the host plant,

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meaning a plant upon which
it can lodge and subsist,

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so signals act as a lighthouse

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for fungi to locate, grow toward, reach

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and finally invade and colonize a plant.

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He knew that the identification
of such signals

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would unlock a great knowledge
that then serves to elaborate strategy

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to block the interaction
between the fungus and the plant.

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However, the lack of an appropriate
method at that moment

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prevented him from identifying
this mechanism at the molecular level.

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Using purification and mutational
genomic approaches,

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as well as a technique

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allowing the measurement
of directed hyphal growth,

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today I'm glad to tell you
that after 130 years,

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my former team and I
could finally identify such plant signals

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by studying the interaction
between a pathogenic fungus

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called Fusarium oxysporum

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and one of its host plants,
the tomato plant.

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As well, we could characterize

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the fungal receptor
receiving those signals

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and part of the underlying reaction
occurring within the fungus

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and leading to its direct growth
toward the plant.

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(Applause)

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Thank you.

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(Applause)

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The understanding
of such molecular processes

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offers a panel of potential molecules

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that can be used to create
novel antifungal treatments.

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And those treatments would disrupt

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the interaction between
the fungus and the plant

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either by blocking the plant signal

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or the fungal reception system
which receives those signals.

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Fungal infections have devastated
agriculture crops.

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Moreover, we are now in an era

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where the demand of crop production
is increasing significantly.

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And this is due to population growth,
economic development,

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climate change and demand for bio fuels.

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Our understanding
of the molecular mechanism

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of interaction between
a fungus and its host plant,

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such as the tomato plant,

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potentially represents a major step
towards developing more efficient strategy

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to combat plant fungal diseases

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and therefore solving of problems
that affect people's lives,

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food security and economic growth.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)