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Poster

Session: Session 2 Presenting Authors at Posters (Evens)

P-206 - Fungal defence and antimicrobial resistance as drivers of niche adaptation

Thursday, July 17, 2025
13:30 - 15:15  
Location: Confex Hall 3
Engineering plant-microbe traits

    Presenting Author(s)

  • KP

    Komal Pervaiz

    PhD scholar
    Department of Plant Pathology, Institute of Crop Science and Resource Conservation (INRES), University of Bonn, Nussallee 9, Bonn, 53115 Germany
    Bonn, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

    • Author(s)

  • AD

    Armin Djamei

    INRES- Plant Pathology, University of Bonn

The plant microbiome and its composition are shaped by its host but also by inter-microbial competition. This competition also influences the capacity for plant pathogenic microbes to establish in their host niche. Magnaporthe oryzae, the causal agent of rice and barley blast disease, faces inter-microbial competition during host colonization. In this study, we sought to identify M. oryzae antagonists and to identify the underlying molecular mechanisms and processes of antimicrobial defence. M. oryzae was exposed in confrontation assays against a library of bacterial species isolated from barley roots. Two species were identified as strong antagonists. We therefore conducted RNA-seq analyses to identify genes related to fungal defence in response to the microbial competition. A number of candidates were differentially expressed and putatively involved in antimicrobial resistance. Gene ontology enrichment analysis indicated a significant overrepresentation of terms related to drug efflux, secondary metabolism, and oxidative stress response. These findings suggest that M. oryzae possesses adaptive defence mechanisms to survive microbial antagonism. Understanding these resistance strategies could provide insights into antimicrobial resistance in plant pathogenic fungi and provides potential targets for novel disease management strategies.