Location: Soil Management and Sugarbeet Research
Project Number: 3012-21220-011-007-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Aug 1, 2025
End Date: Jul 31, 2028
Objective:
Cercospora Leaf Spot is an economically damaging disease in all sugar beet production regions and effective management of the causal fungal pathogen Cercospora beticola remains an ongoing challenge. This work aims to find small molecules that can inhibit key fungal effector proteins that contribute to pathogenesis and disease progression in sugar beets, thereby reducing economic losses.
Approach:
Fungal effector proteins that contribute to Cercospora beticola pathogenesis and disease progression in sugar beets will be expressed in E. coli and purified according to established protocols. The cooperator will measure the functional activity of these effector proteins using biochemical and enzymatic assays to establish a baseline for inhibitor studies. The cooperator will assess candidate small molecule compounds for their ability to inhibit effector activity in these assays. The cooperator will measure the binding affinity of candidate inhibitors using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, microscale thermophoresis (MST), and/or isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC). The cooperator will assist in structural characterization of inhibitor-bound effector complexes via X-ray crystallography, NMR spectroscopy, and/or cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), which will provide insights into each inhibitor’s structure-activity relationship. This information will be used in creating inhibitor compound derivatives that further optimize potency and specificity. Green house and field trials will be used to quantify the efficacy and effectiveness of optimized inhibitor compounds in mitigating fungal growth and progression Cercospora leaf spot disease on different sugar beet lines.