INRA (URGI and BIOGER) have been involved in a BBSRC-INRA joint project research project aiming to explains why barley powdery mildew fungus is biotrophic. During evolution, this fungus has so well adapted to its host plant that has gradually lost its genetic makeup alone allowing it to grow, thus becoming totally dependent on its host plant, barley.

Among the pathogenic fungi of cereals, powdery mildew is a major threat because he is responsible for significant declines in yield of infected plants. Powdery mildew in fact has the distinction of being a biotrophic micro-organism that is to say it does not kill its host plant, but sets up a system for exchanging complex metabolic weakening gradually plant in terms of energy. Growth and reproduction of powdery mildews are therefore entirely dependent on plants they are pathogenic.

Read more : Science publication and INRA press