Poster
Balakumaran Chandrasekar
Assistant Professor
Birla Institute of Science and Technology (BITS Pilani) India
Pilani, Rajasthan, India
Chetan Veeraganti Naveen Prakash
BITS Pilani
Pilani, Rajasthan, India
Muthusaravanan Sivaramakrishnan
BITS Pilani
Pilani, Rajasthan, India
Sakshi Goel
BITS Pilani
Pilani, Rajasthan, India
Vasudha Porwal
BITS Pilani
Pilani, Rajasthan, India
Pawan Kumar Amrate
Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya, Jabalpur
Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India
Manoj Kumar Shrivastava
Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya, Jabalpur
Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India
Macrophomina phaseolina is a fungal pathogen that causes charcoal root rot disease in various crops, including soybean. To date, no reliable resistance gene sources are available to combat M. phaseolina, and hence, identification of mechanistic targets is crucial for improving crop resistance. Apoplast is an important compartment where the outcome of plant-pathogen interactions is determined. In our study, we have employed label-free quantitative proteomics and have detected several secreted proteins of M. phaseolina in soybean root apoplast during infections. Glycome analysis has revealed cell wall polysaccharides that are potentially targeted by the CAZymes of M. phaseolina. AlphaFold 2 (AF2) analysis of selected secreted proteins has revealed several sequence-unrelated structurally similar (SUSS) effectors and effectors with novel structural folds secreted by M. phaseolina. Furthermore, we have employed AlphaFold Multimer (AFM) analysis to predict interactions of candidate inhibitors with soybean cysteine and serine proteases with high confidence. We have employed Molecular dynamics, and activity-based protein profiling (ABPP) approaches to validate these interactions. Therefore, our work provides insights into Soybean-M. phaseolina interactions in the root apoplast and unveil potential candidates for structured-guided engineering to impart resistance in soybean against M. phaseolina.