Resistance of grapevine to downy mildew and grey rot

Key regulators of induced resistance of plants to pathogens

Projects 1a, 1b, 10

General description of the projects:

Grapevine is an important crop plant world-wide, but also in Switzerland, especially in the Western part (Valais, Vaud, Genève, Neuchâtel, Fribourg, Berne).Within the National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) "Plant survival" we are studying the reactions of grapevine plants to two major diseases, downy mildew (caused by Plasmopara viticola) and grey rot (caused by Botrytis cinerea). For basic mechanisms of induced resistance, we study the more amenable experimental plant Arabidopsis thaliana. In fact, the aim of this project is to transfer the knowledge and the tools developed with Arabidopsis and other annual plants to a more difficult woody plant. The participants contribute various expertise which will be applied on the same system. We are implicated in 3 projects of the NCCR :

Contribution of the different groups and people

Universities of Neuchâtel, Fribourg, Lausanne, Federal Research Station in Changins, ETH Zürich

from left: Roger Pezet, Katia Gindro and Hannes Richter (RAC Changins), Laurent Mène-Saffrané (Uni Lausanne), Isabelle Wagschal (ETH Zürich), Brigitte Mauch-Mani, Jean-Marc Neuhaus, Laurent Barnavon and Mollah Md. Hamiduzzaman "Hamid" (Uni Neuchâtel).

University of Neuchâtel

Botany Institute, Lab of Biochemistry

  • Identification of genes involved in resistance (L. Barnavon, J.-M.Neuhaus).
  • Mechanisms of systemic induced resistance to downy mildew in a susceptible (Chasselas) and a resistant (Solaris) cultivar (Hamid, J.Ton, B.Mauch-Mani).

Jurriaan Ton, Laurent Barnavon, Jean-Marc Neuhaus,
Mollah Md. Hamiduzzaman (Hamid) and Brigitte Mauch-Mani

Chemistry Institute, Organic Chemistry, Tabacchi group

Characterization and identification of induced or constitutive antifungal metabolites and study of their involvement in resistance mechanism in plants

Julien Bernard Jean-Denis, Eliane Abou-Mansour, Josée Polier-Calame, Raphaël Tabacchi

University of Lausanne, Ecology Institute, Plant Biology, Farmer group

Identification of reactive carbonyls involved in defense reactions in plants

(Edward E.) Ted Farmer and Laurent Mène-Saffrané

First publication of results obtained with the support of the NCCR:
E. Alméras, S. Stolz, S. Vollenweider, P. Reymond, L.Mène-Saffrané and E.E.Farmer (2003) Reactive electrophile species activate defense gene expression in Arabidopsis. The Plant Journal, 34, 205-216

Federal Research Station Changins

Biochemistry and disease development of downy mildew and grey mould

Roger Pezet, Katia Gindro, Hannes Richter (missing: Olivier Viret)

ETH Zürich, Institute of Plant Sciences, Plant Biochemistry and Physiology

The phenylpropanoid pathway of grapes and its involvement in defense reactions

Isabelle Wagschal (missing: Nick Amrhein and Cheryl Fleming-Smart)

University of Fribourg, Departement of Biology, Plant Biology

Finding key regulators of induced resistance of plants to pathogens

Henk-Jan Schoonbeek, Christiane Nawrath, Jean-Pierre Métraux,
Anne-Claude Jaquat-Bovet and Céline Chassot
(missing: Nonglak Parinthawong)

LINKS to other labs involved in similar work:

Last modifications : 25th April 2003

Jean-Marc Neuhaus