P-583 - Determining the Role of Starships in Fungal Plant Pathogenesis

Monday, August 4, 2025

4:30 PM - 5:15 PM HST

Location: Exhibit Hall 3

Presenting Author(s)

AP

Annika Pratt (she/her/hers)

PhD Student
University of Wisconsin - Madison
Madison, WI, USA

Author(s)

MR

Mitchell G. Roth

Regional Proprietary Agronomist
Farmers Business Network
Alto, Michigan, United States
JP

Jelmer W. Poelstra

Molecular and Cellular Imaging Center
Wooster, Ohio, United States
HL

Horacio D. Lopez-Nicora, Dr.

Assistant Professor
The Ohio State University
Columbus, Ohio, United States
AS

Amit Sharma

Univeristy of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, Wisconsin, United States
DS

Damon L. Smith, n/a

Professor
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Madison, Wisconsin, United States
MK

Mehdi Kabbage

Professor
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, Wisconsin, United States
EG

Emile Gluck-Thaler

Assistant Professor
Department of Plant Pathology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, Wisconsin, United States

Abstract Text: Plant pathogenic fungi cause widespread losses of economically important crops every year. Starships are a newly discovered group of transposable elements in filamentous fungi. Starships are unique because of their massive size (~100kb on average) and their ability to mobilize dozens of cargo genes with putatively adaptive functions. Starships may carry genes that increase fungal fitness, play a role in plant host specificity, and are predicted to play a role in the virulence of plant pathogenic fungi. However, the precise role of Starships in fungal plant pathogenesis remains unknown. Our research aims to determine the role of Starships in fungal plant pathogens using Sclerotinia sclerotiorum and Macrophomina phaseolina as model systems. We used starfish, a Starship annotation pipeline, to annotate Starships in all publicly available S. sclerotiorum and M. phaseolina genomes. We then used new and previously generated transcriptomics data to compare the expression of cargo genes to examine if Starship cargo has higher expression in planta vs in vitro. Next, we will validate the role of cargo genes in plant infection by reverse genetics and infection assays. Ultimately, this research seeks to predict fungal population diversity and adaptation by exploring the role of Starship cargo in fungal plant pathogenesis. These predictions will then inform and improve strategies for managing agricultural fungal diseases more effectively.