Professor Poliane Alfenas Zerbini, supervisor of the Graduate Program in Agricultural Microbiology, was one of the speakers at the International Congress of Mycology, held between August 11 and 15 in Maastricht, the Netherlands. Poliane was invited to present to the mycologists the results of her research involving viruses with the potential to infect the fungus Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, a cosmopolitan phytopathogen that affects several agricultural crops of great economic importance.

The Virus Laboratory, coordinated by Professor Poliane, works with viruses that infect fungi and phytopathogenic bacteria. “One of the aims of our work is to prospect viruses for use in controlling plant pathogens. Recently, after several experiments, we identified some viruses without capsids with great potential for controlling this fungus. Our results suggest that S. sclerotiorum is a permissive ecological niche for the evolution of these non-capsid viruses. The presence of a specific group of these viruses makes the fungus much less aggressive, with potential for the use of these viruses in biocontrol strategies. In addition, the presence of a great diversity of these viruses in a single host makes this system very interesting for studying the evolution of this group of viruses,” explains the professor.

The invitation to go to Holland came after the professor presented other contributions from the laboratory at the Congresso Brasileiro de Micologia, held in February. “It’s an interesting experience to bring these results to the attention of mycologists. Although the idea that viruses can modulate various characteristics of their host fungi is not new, it is only recently that it has become of great interest to mycology. Working as a team with mycologists has been a very rich exchange of knowledge that can be very interesting for both parties.

The work presented by Poliane is part of the doctoral research being carried out by PPGMBA student Yam de Sousa Santos,  with former PPGMBA student Rafael Reis de Rezende, who is currently a researcher at the laboratory.

The International Mycological Congress is the biggest event in mycology, organized by the International Mycological Association (IMA).