The lack of durable resistant cultivars means that fungicide application is the most common disease control strategy. Future novel control strategies will benefit from a greater understanding of the genes and pathways that are important for the ability of this fungus to invade the plant. A major aim of our research is to identify and characterise these genes and pathways. Our principle strategies involve the use of the emerging "omic" technologies

To facilitate the study of gene expression in the fungus we have developed a Mycosphaerella graminicola microarray containing 2668 genes obtained through the sequencing of three Expressed Sequence Tag (EST) libraries. This microarray contains a diverse set of functional categories of Mycosphaerella genes.

We are currently using this microarray in transcription profiling of Mycosphaerella graminicola during various stages of plant infection. These studies are providing a wealth of information regarding the regulation of fungal gene expression and are also identifying many possible target genes for functional analysis.

Motteram, J., Lovegrove, A., Pirie, E., Marsh, J., Devonshire, J., van de Meene, A., Hammond-Kosack, K., Rudd, J. J. (2011) Aberrant protein N-glycosylation impacts upon infection-related growth transitions of the haploid plant-pathogenic fungus Mycosphaerella graminicola. Mol Microbiol doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2958.2011.07701.x.

Goodwin, S. B., Ben M'Barek, S., Dhillon, B., Wittenberg, A. H. J., Crane, C. F., Hane, J. K., Foster, A. F., Van der Lee, T. A. J., Grimwood, J., Aerts, A., Antoniw, J., Bailey, A., Bluhm, B., Bowler, J., Bristow, J., van der Burgt, A., Canto-Canché, B., Churchill, A. C. L., Conde-Ferràez, L., Cools, H. J., Coutinho, P. M., Csukai, M., Deha, P., De Wit, P., Donzelli, B., van de Geest, H. C., van Ham, R. C. H. J., Hammond-Kosack, K. E., Henrissat, B., Kilian, A., Kobayashi, A. K., Koopmann, E., Kourmpetis, Y., Kuzniar, A., Lindquist, E., Lombard, V., Maliepaard, C., Martins, N., Mehrabi, R., Nap, J. P. H., Ponomarenko, A., Rudd, J. J., Salamov, A., Schmutz, J., Schouten, H. J., Shapiro, H., Stergiopoulos, I., Torriani, S. F. F., Tu, H., de Vries, R. P., Waalwijk, C., Ware, S. B., Wiebenga, A., Zwiers, L-H., Oliver, R. P., Grigoriev, I. V., Kema, G. H. J. (2011) Finished genome of the fungal wheat pathogen Mycosphaerella graminicola reveals dispensome structure, chromosome plasticity, and stealth pathogenesis. PLoS Genet 7(6), e1002070. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1002070.

Marshall, R., Kombrink, A., Motteram, J., Loza-Reyes, E., Lucas, J., Hammond-Kosack, K. E., Thomma, B. P., Rudd, J. J. (2011) Analysis of two in planta expressed LysM effector homologs from the fungus Mycosphaerella graminicola reveals novel functional properties and varying contributions to virulence on wheat. Plant Physiol 156, 756-769.

Deller, S., Hammond-Kosack, K. E., Rudd, J. J. (2011) The complex interactions between host immunity and non-biotrophic fungal pathogens of wheat leaves. J Plant Physiol 168, 63-71.

Rudd, J. J., Antoniw, J., Marshall, R., Motteram, J., Fraaije, B., Hammond-Kosack, K. (2010) Identification and characterisation of Mycosphaerella graminicola secreted or surface-associated proteins with variable intragenic coding repeats. Fungal Genet Biol 47, 19-32.

Motteram, J., Küfner, I., Deller, S., Brunner, F., Hammond-Kosack, K. E., Nürnberger, T., Rudd, J. J. (2009) Molecular characterization and functional analysis of MgNLP, the sole NPP1 domain-containing protein, from the fungal wheat leaf pathogen Mycosphaerella graminicola. Mol Plant-Microbe Interact 22, 790-799.

Hammond-Kosack, K. E., Rudd, J. J. (2008) Plant resistance signalling hijacked by a necrotrophic fungal pathogen. Plant Signal Behav 3, 993-995.

Rudd, J. J., Keon, J. and Hammond-Kosack, K. E. (2008) The wheat MAP-kinases TaMPK3 and TaMPK6 are differentially regulated at multiple levels during compatible disease interactions with Mycosphaerella graminicola. Plant Physiol 147, 802-815.

Keon, J., Antionow, J., Carzaaniga, R., Deller, S., Ward, J., Baker, J. M., Beale, M. H., Hammond-Kosack, K., Rudd, J. J. (2007) Transcriptional adaptation of Mycosphaerella graminicola to programmed cell death (PCD) of its susceptible wheat host. Mol Plant-Microbe Interact 20, 179-193.

Keon, J., Rudd, J. J., Antoniw, J., Skinner, W., Hargreaves, J. & Hammond-Kosack, K. (2005). Metabolic and stress adaptation by Mycosphaerella graminicola during sporulation in its host revealed through microarray transcription profiling. Mol Plant Pathol 6, 527-540.

Keon, J., Antoniw, J., Rudd, J. J., Skinner, W., Hargreaves, J. and Hammond-Kosack, K. E. (2005) Analysis of expressed sequence tags from the wheat leaf blotch pathogen Mycosphaerella graminicola (anamorph Septoria tritici ). Fungal Genet Biol 42, 376-389.

Hammond-Kosack, K.E., Urban, M., Baldwin, T., Daudi, A., Rudd, J.J., Keon, J., Lucas, J.A., Maguire, K., Kornyukhin, D., Jing, H.-C., Bass, C. and Antoniw, J. (2004) Plant pathogens: how can molecular genetic information on plant pathogens assist in breeding disease resistant crops? Proceedings of the 4th International Crop Science Congress, Brisbane, Australia.