Biology subjects

Diane Saunders

Publications and source records attributed to Diane Saunders.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2016

Emergence of wheat blast in Bangladesh was caused by a South American lineage of Magnaporthe oryzae

In February 2016, a new fungal disease was spotted in wheat fields across eight districts in Bangladesh. The epidemic spread to an estimated 15,741 hectares, about 16% of cultivated wheat area in Bangladesh, with yield losses reaching up to 100%. Within weeks of the onset of the epidemic, we performed transcriptome sequencing of symptomatic leaf samples collected directly from Bangladeshi fields. Population genomics analyses revealed that the outbreak was caused by a wheatLinfecting South American lineage of the blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae. We show that genomic surveillance can be rapidly applied to monitor plant disease outbreaks and provide valuable information regarding the identity and origin of the infectious agent.

Plant Biology↗

bioRxiv2015

RUST FUNGAL EFFECTORS MIMIC HOST TRANSIT PEPTIDES TO TRANSLOCATE INTO CHLOROPLASTS

Parasite effector proteins target various host cell compartments to alter host processes and promote infection. How effectors cross membrane-rich interfaces to reach these compartments is a major question in effector biology. Growing evidence suggests that effectors use molecular mimicry to subvert host cell machinery for protein sorting. We recently identified CTP1 (chloroplast-targeted protein 1), a candidate effector from the poplar leaf rust fungus Melampsora larici-populina that carries a predicted transit peptide and accumulates in chloroplasts. Here, we show that the CTP1 transit peptide is necessary and sufficient for accumulation in the stroma of chloroplasts, and is cleaved after translocation. CTP1 is part of a Melampsora-specific family of polymorphic secreted proteins whose members translocate and are processed in chloroplasts in a N-terminal signal-dependent manner. Our findings reveal that fungi have evolved effector proteins that mimic plant-specific sorting signals to traffic within plant cells.

Plant Biology↗

bioRxiv2014

Crowdsourced analysis of ash and ash dieback through the Open Ash Dieback project: A year 1 report on datasets and analyses contributed by a self-organising community.

Ash dieback is a fungal disease of ash trees caused by Hymenoscyphus pseudoalbidus that has swept across Europe in the last two decades and is a significant threat to the ash population. This emergent pathogen has been relatively poorly studied and little is known about its genetic make-up. In response to the arrival of this dangerous pathogen in the UK we took the unusual step of providing an open access database and initial sequence datasets to the scientific community for analysis prior to performing an analysis of our own. Our goal was to crowdsource genomic and other analyses and create a community analysing this pathogen. In this report on the evolution of the community and data and analysis obtained in the first year of this activity, we describe the nature and the volume of the contributions and reveal some preliminary insights into the genome and biology of H. pseudoalbidus that emerged. In particular our nascent community generated a first-pass genome assembly containing abundant collapsed AT-rich repeats indicating a typically complex genome structure. Our open science and crowdsourcing effort has brought a wealth of new knowledge about this emergent pathogen within a short time-frame. Our community endeavour highlights the positive impact that open, collaborative approaches can have on fast, responsive modern science.

Genomics↗