Summary: Cellular heterogeneity is a mechanism that allows organisms to generate variability from genetically identical cells, so populations are variable in responses towards stress, fitness or virulence. This area has been explored in clinical microorganisms, however hardly anything is known for plant pathogenic fungi. A single disease lesion caused by M. oryzae in plants produces ~50,000 spores which are identical to the parental spore. It is however unknown that are the molecular mechanisms associated to heterogeneity to spore populations.
General objective: To determine the molecular mechanisms associated with heterogeneity in spore populations of M. oryzae, and dilucidate what the molecular drivers of heterogeneity are.