Abstract
Fungi are among the most frequent damaging agents of plants, in natural and managed ecosystems. In recent years, they have been identified as a major cause of emerging diseases in the context of global change, especially through the introduction of previously unknown species in new areas. Understanding this fast-moving epidemiological environment is a key issue and will require greater emphasis on integrative and predictive approaches. Though plant pathology has been increasingly integrating population genetics and genomics, an integrative ecological framework based on adaptive traits is still missing for fungal plant pathogens.
In the FUNFIT project, we aim to fill this gap by establishing a theoretical framework, including conceptual schemes and models, and by developing experimental work on three representative fungal forest pathogens from a trait-based perspective. The premise of FUNFIT is that characterizing life history traits of fungal forest pathogens, including their variation, plasticity, trade-offs and evolution, will give us better insights into: (i) what makes a fungal pathogen successful, which is a very complementary approach to genomic studies of the determinants of pathogenicity; (ii) population and community dynamics of pathogens, hence ultimately plant disease dynamics and impacts in natural ecosystems.
FUNFIT encompasses concepts and methods from evolutionary biology, epidemiology and ecology, with strong interactions between modelling and biological studies. It is based on three main tasks, using a trait-based approach at different levels of biological organization: Task 1 - linking disease associated traits and fitness in fungal forest pathogens (individual level); Task 2 - studying the evolution of traits during colonisation/emergence processes (population level); and Task 3 - unravelling how a complex of cryptic species/lineages maintains although they share the same spatial niche. All tasks combine theoretical (including modelling) and empirical (experiments and data analysis) approaches in order to enrich a conceptual framework and to test hypotheses using several representative fungal pathogens of forest trees.
Finally, results are expected to (i) contribute to deeper academic knowledge of the ecology of fungi, which constitute a major part of terrestrial biodiversity, and (ii) help knowledge-based management of plant diseases, including pest risk analysis, selection of durable resistance, and biological control. The FUNFIT project will lead to a significant step forward in the understanding of plant epidemics. It will have major implications in our understanding of how fungi grow, survive and evolve in the ever-changing environmental conditions and how this knowledge can be exploited to reduce fungal infestation and destruction of crops.
France