Poster
Jinyi Zhu
Postdoc
CEPLAS/University of Cologne
Cologne, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
Fantin Mesny
Postdoctoral Researcher
University of Cologne
Cologne, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
Mehrnaz Zaeifi
University of Cologne
Cologne, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
Wilko Punt
University of Cologne
Cologne, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
Anton Kraege (he/him/his)
University of Cologne
Cologne, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
Andrea Doddi
PhD student
University of Cologne
Cologne, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
Bart Thomma (he/him/his)
CEPLAS/University of Cologne
Cologne, GERMANY
Plant-associated microbiota play crucial roles in maintaining plant health by providing protection against pathogens. The soil-borne fungal plant pathogen Verticillium dahliae secretes antimicrobial proteins (AMPs) to manipulate plant-associated microbiota to mediate niche establishment and promote host infection. These AMPs typically exhibit selective activity against microbial antagonists. However, the deployment of AMPs by V. dahliae likely drives target microbes to evolve self-defense mechanisms to mitigate the detrimental AMP effects. One such mechanism could be to, suppress AMP gene expression in V. dahliae. Here, we tested this hypothesis and show that soil microbial communities repress AMP gene expression in V. dahliae. To identify microbes that are responsible for suppression, we profiled microbial compositions in various soil extracts. By correlating AMP gene expression patterns with microbial profiles, we identified candidate taxa that may be involved in AMP suppression. Our current efforts are aimed at functional validation of such taxa. Overall, our findings suggest that arms races occur between V. dahliae and microbes it encounters in its environment.