Does the mildew fungus alter the cell-to-cell communication in barley?

For the generation of resistant plants is the future it is important to understand the mechanisms in fungal infections. Barley powdery mildew is dependant upon a living host plant. It is perhaps manipulating the metabolism of its host and changing the symplasmic transport between cells.

 

In this project you will learn to operate the confocal microscope and perform photoactivation experiments with “caged” fluorescent tracers. You will inoculate barley leaves with mildew and test any changes in plant cell-to-cell communication.