WS2: How fungi cause plant diseases

Fungi are omnipresent: with their countless spores, they spread through the air or water and grow in all kinds of places: they can turn grape juice into wine, break down wood, produce dangerous toxins and produce valuable substances. Some fungi are dangerous pathogens for animals and humans. Countless species of fungi have specialized in attacking plants and feeding on them. Some fungi grow as parasites in living plant cells (e.g. powdery mildew fungi), while others kill the plant host cells and feed on dead plant tissue (e.g. gray rot on grapes). Fungi can cause devastating damage to crops. In order to develop sustainable strategies to combat fungal diseases, we are investigating the infection strategies of fungi and the defense mechanisms of plants.

In the workshop we will show some fungal diseases of plants and the methods we use to investigate how fungal infections develop. You will perform an infection test and learn how we can use targeted mutants to better understand the attack mechanisms of fungi and the defense mechanisms of plants.

Event type:
Workshop, registration required

Location:
Building 22, Room 138