"Will the blight end the chestnut? The farmers rather guess not. It keeps smouldering at the roots And sending up new shoots Till another parasite Shall come to end the blight."
「枝枯病會奪走栗樹嗎? 農人寧可猜測不會。 栗樹的根不斷地鬱結 並送出新枝 直到另一種寄生物 前來終結枝枯病。」
At the beginning of the 20th century, the eastern American chestnut population, counting nearly four billion trees, was completely decimated by a fungal infection. Fungi are the most destructive pathogens of plants, including crops of major economic importance. Can you imagine that today, crop losses associated with fungal infection are estimated at billions of dollars per year, worldwide? That represents enough food calories to feed half a billion people. And this leads to severe repercussions, including episodes of famine in developing countries, large reduction of income for farmers and distributors, high prices for consumers and risk of exposure to mycotoxin, poison produced by fungi.
二十世紀初, 美國東部有將近四百萬棵栗樹, 因真菌感染而全數滅亡。 真菌是世界上最具 毀滅性的植物病原體, 重要經濟作物也深受其害。 你能想像現在 和真菌感染有關的作物損失 每年全球估計有數十億美元嗎? 換算成食物熱量能滿足五億人。 真菌感染會造成嚴重的後果, 包含在發展中國家引起饑荒、 農夫和批發商收入大幅減少、 消費者必須高價購買, 以及曝露在由真菌產生的 黴菌毒素的風險中。
The problems that we face is that the current method used to prevent and treat those dreadful diseases, such as genetic control, exploiting natural sources of resistance, crop rotation or seed treatment, among others, are still limited or ephemeral. They have to be constantly renewed. Therefore, we urgently need to develop more efficient strategies and for this, research is required to identify biological mechanisms that can be targeted by novel antifungal treatments.
我們面臨到的問題 是現在用來預防和處理 那些致命疾病的方法, 例如遺傳控制、 開發抵抗真菌的天然資源, 輪作或種子處理等等, 這些做的都還是有限且不夠持久。 處理方式必須不斷更新。 所以我們迫切需要 發展更有效的策略, 因此研究必須能辨識出 能以新型抗真菌法對抗的生物機轉。
One feature of fungi is that they cannot move and only grow by extension to form a sophisticated network, the mycelium. In 1884, Anton de Bary, the father of plant pathology, was the first to presume that fungi are guided by signals sent out from the host plant, meaning a plant upon which it can lodge and subsist, so signals act as a lighthouse for fungi to locate, grow toward, reach and finally invade and colonize a plant. He knew that the identification of such signals would unlock a great knowledge that then serves to elaborate strategy to block the interaction between the fungus and the plant. However, the lack of an appropriate method at that moment prevented him from identifying this mechanism at the molecular level.
真菌的特色是無法移動, 而且只能透過擴展生長, 進而形成複雜的網絡, 稱為菌絲體。 1884 年,植物病理學之父狄伯瑞 率先提出真菌依靠訊號引導的假設, 此訊號來自它的寄主植物, 這意味著發訊號的植物 可以供給食宿, 所以訊號扮演像燈塔的角色, 為真菌定位、提供發展和延伸方向, 最後入侵並定殖於某植物。 他知道辨識出這種訊號 能解開一大知識庫之謎, 之後能藉此規畫出 阻擋真菌和植物交流的策略。 然而,當時欠缺適合的方法, 因此他未能在分子層級 辨識出這種機轉。
Using purification and mutational genomic approaches, as well as a technique allowing the measurement of directed hyphal growth, today I'm glad to tell you that after 130 years, my former team and I could finally identify such plant signals by studying the interaction between a pathogenic fungus called Fusarium oxysporum and one of its host plants, the tomato plant. As well, we could characterize the fungal receptor receiving those signals and part of the underlying reaction occurring within the fungus and leading to its direct growth toward the plant.
透過純化和突變基因的方式, 加上一種技術, 能測量出被引導的菌絲生長, 今天我很高興能告訴大家, 在 130 年後, 我與之前合作的團隊 終於能辨識出這種植物訊號, 我們透過研究一種病原菌 和植物的互動, 即尖孢鐮刀菌, 和此菌的一種寄主植物 ──蕃茄植株。 同樣的,我們也能描繪出 真菌用來接收那些訊號的接收器、 在真菌中的部分潛在反應, 以及它朝植物直接生長的位置。
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Thank you.
謝謝。
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The understanding of such molecular processes offers a panel of potential molecules that can be used to create novel antifungal treatments. And those treatments would disrupt the interaction between the fungus and the plant either by blocking the plant signal or the fungal reception system which receives those signals. Fungal infections have devastated agriculture crops. Moreover, we are now in an era where the demand of crop production is increasing significantly. And this is due to population growth, economic development, climate change and demand for bio fuels. Our understanding of the molecular mechanism of interaction between a fungus and its host plant, such as the tomato plant, potentially represents a major step towards developing more efficient strategy to combat plant fungal diseases and therefore solving of problems that affect people's lives, food security and economic growth.
了解這種分子過程 能提供潛在的分子平臺, 用來創造新的抗真菌處理方式。 那些處理方式會中斷 真菌和植物之間的交流, 透過阻隔植物發出的訊號, 或是阻隔真菌接受訊號的系統來做到。 真菌感染摧毀了農作物。 而且我們正處於 需要大幅提升糧食產量的時代, 以因應人口成長、經濟發展、 氣候變遷和對生物燃料的需求。 我們對分子機轉的了解, 對真菌和寄主植物之間的互動, 例如和蕃茄植株之間的互動, 可能是很重要的關鍵, 讓我們能發展更有效的策略 來抵抗植物的真菌病, 進而解決影響人類生活的問題、 糧食安全和經濟成長的問題。
Thank you.
謝謝。
(Applause)
(掌聲)