Oostlander Anne G, Fleißner André, Slippers Bernard
Institute of Genetics, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Braunschweig, 38106, Germany.
Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Microbiology, Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, 0002, South Africa.
New Phytol. 2025 Aug;247(4):1599-1607. doi: 10.1111/nph.70205. Epub 2025 May 11.
Forests world-wide are under escalating threat from emerging and invasive fungal and oomycete pathogens, driven by globalization and shifting climate dynamics. Effective strategies to manage the current scale and rate of changes in forest health remain hindered by our limited ability to study the underlying mechanisms of pathogen-host and pathogen-microbiome interactions, especially at a molecular and cellular level, compared to general plant pathology, where experimental and model systems exist. Such models facilitate the integration of diverse methodologies from a broader base of the research community, allowing for a more holistic and deeper examination of complex research questions. Here, we propose a framework for the development of such model systems also for forest pathology. This goal is more feasible than ever, thanks to rapid technological advancements, increasing open data availability and a globally interconnected research community. These factors create a unique opportunity to integrate ecosystem-focused research in forest pathology with a unified model organism strategy. Achieving this goal will require a dedicated community effort in the coming years, as such model systems are not discovered but built.
由于全球化和气候变化动态的影响，全球森林正面临着来自新出现的和入侵性真菌及卵菌病原体日益加剧的威胁。与已有实验和模型系统的普通植物病理学相比，我们在研究病原体-宿主和病原体-微生物组相互作用的潜在机制方面能力有限，尤其是在分子和细胞水平上，这仍然阻碍着我们制定有效的策略来应对当前森林健康变化的规模和速度。此类模型有助于整合来自更广泛研究群体的各种方法，从而能够对复杂的研究问题进行更全面、更深入的考察。在此，我们提出一个为森林病理学开发此类模型系统的框架。由于技术的快速进步、开放数据的日益可得以及全球互联的研究群体，这一目标比以往任何时候都更可行。这些因素创造了一个独特的机会，可将以生态系统为重点的森林病理学研究与统一的模式生物策略相结合。要实现这一目标，未来几年需要整个研究群体的共同努力，因为此类模型系统不是被发现的，而是构建出来的。
