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Taming the uncultured

Nature Biotechnology volume 18, pages 146–147 (2000)Cite this article

Powdery mildew fungi cause some of the most severe and persistent diseases of crops, particularly of European and North American barley and wheat1. Finding effective control strategies represents an important challenge to the agricultural biotechnology industry, and one with high incentives: the powdery mildew fungicide market is worth more than 380 million dollars per year2.

As an obligate parasite, Erysiphe graminis (the causal agent of barley powdery mildew) only grows on and in living hosts, which creates something of a nightmare for molecular geneticists who cannot culture it on artificial media. For this reason, the first successful transformation of E. graminis, reported by Chaure and colleagues3 in this issue, is an important breakthrough. DNA-mediated transformation—long since taken for granted by those studying model fungal organisms such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Aspergillus nidulans, or Neurospora crassa—represents the first step toward functional genetic analysis in E. graminis.

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Figure 1: Diagram showing infection of barley by the fungal pathogen Erysiphe graminis f. sp. hordei, an obligate parasite that infects barley leaves using a specialized cell called an appressorium which penetrates the leaf cuticle.
Figure 2: A powdery mildew outbreak on barley.

Courtesy of H. Østergaard, RISØ National Laboratory, Denmark.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. professor of molecular genetics, school of biological sciences, University of Exeter, EX4 4QG, UK

    Nicholas J. Talbot

  2. group leader in microbial research, Paradigm Genetics, Inc., 104 Alexander Drive, Research Triangle Park, 27709, NC, USA

    Lisbeth Hamer

Authors
  1. Nicholas J. Talbot
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  2. Lisbeth Hamer
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Talbot, N., Hamer, L. Taming the uncultured. Nat Biotechnol 18, 146–147 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/72584

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