Harnessing community expertise to fight plant disease

Plant pathogens continue to threaten food security and have a significant economic impact. For this, an understanding of gene function and pathogen-host interactions is critical; underpinned by accurate and comprehensive annotation of genomic sequence. The pathogenic species within Ensembl (bacterial, fungal and protists) have continued to grow, accumulating genomic, transcriptomic, variation, pathogen-host interaction and comparative data. However, it was obvious that some key plant pathogens had incomplete and inconsistent gene sets. Through PhytoPath, a BBSRC-funded project in collaboration with Rothamsted Research, we were able to initiate successful community annotation projects to rectify this problem. In the first instance, we facilitated the collaboration of over 40 members of the Botrytis cinerea community spread across 8 countries. Using the gene editing tool Apollo, web-based training and infrastructure support from Ensembl Fungi, this group systematically reviewed theentire gene set. This new gene set was checked and disseminated via Ensembl Fungi. Following this, a similar project was completed for another important pathogen,Blumeria graminis, also leading to a refined gene set and publication. Currently, we are engaging with the Zymoseptoria tritici (a growing threat to wheat) community to enable them to achieve the same. While the tangible outcome of these projects appears to be a better gene set, it is apparent that the inherent agreement and dialogue among community members as they undergo this curation process is also consequential to the acceleration of the field. With increasing volumes of easily-accessible data, the role of unifying both the divergent data sets and the associated research teams is paramount. We anticipate that by continuing to be a hub for community-driven efforts, the microbial portals within Ensembl can pave the way for a new kind of collaboration among geographically- dispersed pathogen research communities.