Proteomics has become one of the most relevant high-throughput technologies. Several approaches have been used for studying, for example, tumor development, biomarker discovery, or microbiology. In this “post-genomic” era, the relevance of these studies has been highlighted as the phenotypes determined by the proteins and not by the genotypes encoding them that is responsible for the final phenotypes. One of the most interesting outcomes of these technologies is the design of new drugs, due to the discovery of new disease factors that may be candidates for new therapeutic targets. To our knowledge, no commercial fungicides have been developed from targeted molecular research, this review will shed some light on future prospects. We will summarize previous research efforts and discuss future innovations, focused on the fight against one of the main agents causing a devastating crops disease, fungal phytopathogens.

Increasing soil salinity represents a major constraint for agriculture in arid and semi-arid lands, where mineral nitrogen (N) deficiency is also a frequent characteristic of soils. Biological N fixation by legumes may constitute a sustainable alternative to chemical fertilisation in salinity-affected areas, provided that adapted cultivars and inoculants are available. Here, the performance of three peanut cultivars nodulated with two different rhizobial strains that differ in their salt tolerance was evaluated under moderately saline water irrigation and compared with that of N-fertilised plants. Shoot weight was used as an indicator of yield. Under non-saline conditions, higher yields were obtained using N fertilisation rather than inoculation for all the varieties tested. However, under salt stress, the yield of inoculated plants became comparable to that of N-fertilised plants, with minor differences depending on the peanut cultivar and rhizobial strain. Our results indicate that N fixation might represent an economical, competitive and environmentally friendly choice with respect to mineral N fertilisation for peanut cultivation under moderate saline conditions.

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Colletotrichum acutatum is an important phytopathogenic fungus causing anthracnose in commercially important fruit crops, such as strawberry. The conidia produced by the fungus are survival structures which play a key role in host infection and fungal propagation. Despite its relevance to the fungal life cycle, conidial biology has not been extensively investigated. Here, we provide the first proteomic description of the conidial germination in C. acutatum by comparing the proteomic profiles of ungerminated and germinated conidia. Using two-dimensional electrophoresis combined with MALDI-TOF/TOF mass spectrometry, we have identified 365 proteins in 354 spots, which represent 245 unique proteins, including some proteins with key functions in pathogenesis. All these proteins have been classified according to their molecular function and their involvement in biological processes, including cellular energy production, oxidative metabolism, stress, fatty acid synthesis, protein synthesis, and folding. This report constitutes the first comprehensive study of protein expression during the early stage of the C. acutatum conidial germination. It advances our understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in the conidial germination process, and provides a useful basis for the further characterization of proteins involved in fungal biology and fungus life cycles.