Alexey Mikaberidze: A new component of tolerance of wheat to its major fungal pathogen Zymoseptoria tritici operating on individual leaves
- Date: Mar 9, 2020
- Time: 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM (Local Time Germany)
- Speaker: Alexey Mikaberidze from the University of Reading, UK
- For more information on the speaker, please see: https://www.reading.ac.uk/apd/staff/a-mikaberidze.aspx
- Location: MPI Plön
- Room: Lecture hall
- Host: Maria Bargués i Ribera
Abstract:
Tolerance and resistance
represent two strategies that hosts evolved to protect themselves from
pathogens. Tolerance alleviates the reduction in host fitness due to
infection without reducing a pathogen's growth, while resistance reduces
pathogen growth. We investigated tolerance of wheat to the major fungal
pathogen Zymoseptoria tritici in 335 elite wheat cultivars in a
replicated field experiment. We used a novel digital phenotyping
approach that included 11,152 infected leaves and counted 2,069,048
pathogen fruiting bodies. We discovered a new component of tolerance
that is based on the relationship between the green area remaining on a
leaf and the number of pathogen fruiting bodies. We found a negative
correlation between tolerance and resistance among intolerant cultivars,
presenting the first compelling evidence for a trade off between
tolerance and resistance to plant pathogens. Surprisingly, the trade off
arises due to limits in the host resources available to the pathogen
and not due to metabolic constraints, contrary to what ecological theory
suggests. This trade off has interesting consequences for the evolution
virulence in pathogen populations. Our analysis indicates that European
wheat breeders may have selected for tolerance instead of resistance to
an important pathogen.