Plant Science Colloquium with Prof. Dr. Matthias Hahn

Botrytis cinerea is a wide host range necrotroph. During invasion, it quickly kills host cells and colonizes dead tissue, supported by secretion of CWDE, cell death inducing proteins (CDIPs) and metabolites, and tissue acidification. However, it is still unclear how the fungus induces host cell death. We have constructed a series of up to 24-fold Botrytis mutants, lacking all currently known CDIPs. The mutants showed normal growth, but decreased virulence with increasing numbers of deleted CDIPs. The search for remaining CDIPs is ongoing, to generate finally a non-killing mutant. It has been postulated that Botrytis triggers the plant oxidative burst and hypersensitive response (HR) as an infection strategy. We assume that most CDIPs contribute to HR by activating plant defence receptors and pattern-triggered immunity (PTI). Infection of mutants lacking central PTI components are currently performed to identify the cell death pathways that triggered by Botrytis.