Project description:Pedunculate oak (Quercus robur) is a foundation tree species in European forests and reforestation programs, and forest nurseries represent key phytosanitary bottlenecks where asymptomatic planting stock can disseminate cryptic pathogens. Cadophora luteo-olivacea is frequently associated with grapevine trunk diseases and has been recovered from diverse woody hosts, yet its pathogenic potential on oak and its interactions with antagonistic fungi remain unresolved. Here, we combine pathogenicity testing, dual-culture confrontation assays and time-resolved, spatially resolved contact-zone proteomics and metabolomics to connect detection to causality and mechanism in an oak associated Cadophora–Trichoderma system. We fulfill Koch’s postulates for C. luteo-olivacea on Q. robur seedlings and quantify inhibition of Cadophora by a natural isolate of Trichoderma atroviride. Contact-zone proteomics at 4 and 8 days post-contact reveals a staged, interface-localized antagonistic program dominated by fungal cell-wall targeting hydrolases (including chitinases and β-1,3-glucanases), secreted proteases, oxidoreductases, transporters and small secreted proteins, alongside factors consistent with adhesion and self-protection. Together, these complementary assays provide the first experimental evidence that C. luteo-olivacea is pathogenic on Q. robur and delineate mechanistic signatures of T. atroviride mycoparasitism at the interaction front. This framework links nursery-relevant pathogen screening to mechanistic readouts and informs evaluation of biocontrol potential in a foundation forest species.
Project description:Compared to other mammals, bats have increased longevity and higher resistance to cancer and infectious disease, in addition to their capacity for flight. This raises questions about bat metabolism. While prior studies have analyzed the metabolic requirements of flight, no study has integrated metabolomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics to characterize bat metabolism. In this work, we characterize fundamental differences in central metabolism between fibroblast cell lines from a black fruit bat (Pteropus alecto) and human, by analyzing multi-omics data via computational modelling of metabolic flux.