seed grant competition

Identifying genes that allow bacteria to suppress pathogens

Brian B. mcspadden gardener, plant pathology Plant-associated bacteria are a rich source of genes and metabolites, including those that can be commercially developed as biopesticides and/or pharmaceuticals. Some of these bacteria suppress diseases by producing antibiotics that inhibit pathogen growth and/or enhance resistance in their plant hosts. The bacteria can serve as the basis for biopesticides and thus fill a need in agriculture to replace certain chemical pesticides with safe and effective alternatives. important for biocontrol. In addition, the team determined the genomes of the several other bacterial species and identified the genes for their active metabolites. Future work will focus on cloning and complementing these novel genes to further study their functions and the metabolites that they produce. This work could eventually reveal new compounds with biopesticide and possibly pharmaceutical potential as antifungal agents. More broadly, the work could also lead to a greater understanding of the components of how bacteria affect the health of their plant hosts.

Bacteria can serve as the basis for biopesticides and thus fill a need in agriculture to replace certain chemical pesticides with safe and effective alternatives.
This project aimed to understand the genomic and metabolic components responsible for plant pathogen suppression in different bacterial strains that have substantial biological pest control (biocontrol) and plant growth-promoting activities. To better characterize the bacterial genes involved in plant health promotion, the research team evaluated different computational methods to identify novel genes, and then created mutant strains to study in the lab to identify genes involved in pathogen inhibition and plant health promotion. The bacterial strains had been previously shown to effectively enhance yields in different crops. Wild-type strains induce plant host resistance in tomato and pepper to both bacterial and a fungal disease. The team is now comparing mutant to wild-type strains to identify mutants deficient in biocontrol and plant growth-promotion activities. Those mutants will then be analyzed to determine which genes were disrupted, indicating the molecules important for pathogen suppression. The team also used the genome sequences to identify potentially novel genes and clusters of genes that might be co-regulated with genes that are known to be

Brian B. mcspadden gardener

www.oardc.ohio-state.edu/seeds

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SEEDS: The OARDC Research Enhancement Competitive Grants Program