ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Mennat El Ghalid - Mycologist
Mennat El Ghalid research aims to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying fungal biology and pathogenicity.

Why you should listen

Mycologist Mennat El Ghalid received an Initial Training Networks - Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship to pursue her PhD project in the Molecular Genetics of Fungal Pathogenicity Unit and the International Campus of Excellence in Agrifood CeiA3 at the Universidad de Cordoba (Spain). During her PhD, her former team and herself identified the compounds secreted from the plant roots attracting Fusarium oxysporum, a soilborne plant pathogenic fungus and characterized the underlying mechanisms of attraction. Such compounds were tracked since the 19th century. The discovery was published in the Nature Journal.

El Ghalid became a TED Fellow in 2017 and have been selected as one of the 100 women honorees for OkayAfrica's 2018 #OKAY100Women list for her dedicated work and for being a promising talent within the field of STEM. She is currently working at Institut Pasteur (France) in the Biology and Pathogenicity Unit to study Candida albicans, an opportunistic pathogenic fungus and the main cause of fungal infections in immunocompromised humans.

More profile about the speaker
Mennat El Ghalid | Speaker | TED.com
TEDGlobal 2017

Mennat El Ghalid: How fungi recognize (and infect) plants

Mennat El Ghalid: Como os fungos reconhecem (e infectam) as plantas

Filmed:
1,145,074 views

Todo o ano o mundo perde comida suficiente para alimentar meio bilhão de pessoas para os fungos, os patógenos mais destrutivos das plantas. Micologista e Bolsista TED Mennat El Ghalid explica como um avanço em nossa compreensão dos sinais moleculares que os fungos usam para atacar as plantas poderia interromper essa interação - e salvar nossas colheitas.
- Mycologist
Mennat El Ghalid research aims to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying fungal biology and pathogenicity. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:12
"Will the blight end the chestnut?
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"A praga vai acabar com a castanha?
00:15
The farmers rather guess not.
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Os agricultores preferem não supor.
00:17
It keeps smouldering at the roots
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Ela continua latente nas raízes
00:20
And sending up new shoots
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E criando novos brotos
00:22
Till another parasite
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Até que outro parasita
00:23
Shall come to end the blight."
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Venha para acabar com a praga."
00:28
At the beginning of the 20th century,
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No início do século 20,
00:30
the eastern American chestnut population,
counting nearly four billion trees,
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a plantação de castanha do leste dos EUA,
estimada em quase 4 bilhões de árvores,
00:35
was completely decimated
by a fungal infection.
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foi completamente dizimada
por uma infecção fúngica.
00:38
Fungi are the most destructive
pathogens of plants,
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Os fungos são os patógenos
de plantas mais destrutivos,
00:41
including crops of major
economic importance.
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incluindo cultivos de grande
importância econômica.
00:44
Can you imagine that today,
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Vocês podem imaginar que hoje
00:46
crop losses associated
with fungal infection
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perdas associadas
à infecção fúngica em cultivos
00:49
are estimated at billions of dollars
per year, worldwide?
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são estimadas em bilhões de dólares
por ano, em todo o mundo?
00:53
That represents enough food calories
to feed half a billion people.
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Isso representa calorias suficientes
para alimentar meio bilhão de pessoas,
00:57
And this leads to severe repercussions,
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o que leva a repercussões severas,
00:59
including episodes of famine
in developing countries,
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incluindo episódios de fome
nos países em desenvolvimento,
01:03
large reduction of income
for farmers and distributors,
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grande redução de renda
para agricultores e distribuidores,
01:06
high prices for consumers
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preços elevados para os consumidores
01:08
and risk of exposure to mycotoxin,
poison produced by fungi.
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e risco de exposição a micotoxinas,
o veneno produzido por fungos.
01:14
The problems that we face
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Os problemas que enfrentamos
01:15
is that the current method
used to prevent and treat
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recaem sobre o método atual
usado para prevenir e tratar
01:18
those dreadful diseases,
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essas doenças terríveis,
01:19
such as genetic control,
exploiting natural sources of resistance,
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como o controle genético, a exploração
de fontes naturais de resistência,
01:24
crop rotation or seed
treatment, among others,
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rotação de cultivos ou tratamento
de sementes, entre outros,
01:27
are still limited or ephemeral.
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já que ainda são limitados ou efêmeros.
01:30
They have to be constantly renewed.
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Eles devem ser constantemente renovados.
01:33
Therefore, we urgently need
to develop more efficient strategies
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Portanto, precisamos urgentemente
desenvolver estratégias mais eficientes
01:37
and for this, research is required
to identify biological mechanisms
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e, para isso, pesquisas são necessárias
para identificar mecanismos biológicos
01:42
that can be targeted
by novel antifungal treatments.
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que podem ser segmentados
por novos tratamentos antifúngicos.
01:49
One feature of fungi
is that they cannot move
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Os fungos não podem se mover
01:52
and only grow by extension
to form a sophisticated network,
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e só crescem por extensão para formar
uma rede sofisticada, o micélio.
01:56
the mycelium.
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01:58
In 1884, Anton de Bary,
the father of plant pathology,
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Em 1884, Anton de Bary,
o pai da patologia vegetal,
02:02
was the first to presume
that fungi are guided by signals
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foi o primeiro a presumir
que os fungos são guiados por sinais
02:06
sent out from the host plant,
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enviados pela planta hospedeira,
02:08
meaning a plant upon which
it can lodge and subsist,
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ou seja, uma planta na qual
podem se alojar e sobreviver.
02:12
so signals act as a lighthouse
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Assim, os sinais agem como um farol
02:14
for fungi to locate, grow toward, reach
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para os fungos localizarem
crescerem, alcançarem
02:19
and finally invade and colonize a plant.
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e, finalmente, invadirem
e colonizarem uma planta.
02:23
He knew that the identification
of such signals
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Ele sabia que a identificação
desses sinais revelaria
02:26
would unlock a great knowledge
that then serves to elaborate strategy
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um grande conhecimento que serviria,
então, para elaborar estratégia
02:31
to block the interaction
between the fungus and the plant.
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para bloquear a interação
entre o fungo e a planta.
02:34
However, the lack of an appropriate
method at that moment
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No entanto, a falta
de um método naquele momento
02:38
prevented him from identifying
this mechanism at the molecular level.
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o impediu de identificar
este mecanismo ao nível molecular.
02:45
Using purification and mutational
genomic approaches,
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Usando purificação e abordagens
genômicas mutacionais,
02:48
as well as a technique
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bem como uma técnica
02:50
allowing the measurement
of directed hyphal growth,
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que permite a medição
do crescimento dirigido de hifas,
02:53
today I'm glad to tell you
that after 130 years,
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hoje fico feliz em dizer
que depois de 130 anos,
02:57
my former team and I
could finally identify such plant signals
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meu antigo time e eu pudemos
finalmente identificar os sinais da planta
03:02
by studying the interaction
between a pathogenic fungus
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estudando a interação
entre um fungo patogênico,
03:05
called Fusarium oxysporum
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chamado fusarium oxysporum,
03:07
and one of its host plants,
the tomato plant.
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e uma das plantas hospedeiras, o tomate.
03:12
As well, we could characterize
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Além disso, podemos caracterizar
o receptor fúngico desses sinais
03:14
the fungal receptor
receiving those signals
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03:17
and part of the underlying reaction
occurring within the fungus
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e parte da reação subjacente
que acontece dentro do fungo,
03:20
and leading to its direct growth
toward the plant.
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causando seu crescimento
em direção à planta.
03:24
(Applause)
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(Aplausos)
03:27
Thank you.
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Obrigada.
03:28
(Applause)
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03:30
The understanding
of such molecular processes
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A compreensão desses processos moleculares
03:32
offers a panel of potential molecules
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oferece um painel de moléculas potenciais
03:35
that can be used to create
novel antifungal treatments.
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que podem ser usadas para criar
novos tratamentos antifúngicos.
03:39
And those treatments would disrupt
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E esses tratamentos interromperiam
a interação entre o fungo e a planta,
03:42
the interaction between
the fungus and the plant
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bloqueando o sinal dela
03:44
either by blocking the plant signal
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03:47
or the fungal reception system
which receives those signals.
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ou o sistema de recepção fúngica
que recebe esses sinais.
03:51
Fungal infections have devastated
agriculture crops.
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Infecções fúngicas têm devastado
o cultivo agrícola.
03:55
Moreover, we are now in an era
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Além do mais, estamos agora numa era
03:57
where the demand of crop production
is increasing significantly.
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na qual a demanda de produção agrícola
vem aumentando significativamente.
04:01
And this is due to population growth,
economic development,
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Isso se dá pelo crescimento populacional,
o desenvolvimento econômico,
04:05
climate change and demand for bio fuels.
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as mudanças climáticas
e a demanda por biocombustíveis.
04:08
Our understanding
of the molecular mechanism
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Nosso entendimento do mecanismo molecular
04:11
of interaction between
a fungus and its host plant,
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de interação entre um fungo
e a planta hospedeira, como o tomate,
04:14
such as the tomato plant,
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potencialmente representa um passo
importante para o desenvolvimento
04:16
potentially represents a major step
towards developing more efficient strategy
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de uma estratégia mais eficiente
para combater doenças fúngicas das plantas
04:21
to combat plant fungal diseases
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e, assim, resolver problemas
que afetam a vida das pessoas,
04:24
and therefore solving of problems
that affect people's lives,
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04:27
food security and economic growth.
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a segurança alimentar
e o crescimento econômico.
04:30
Thank you.
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Obrigada.
04:31
(Applause)
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(Aplausos)
Translated by Maricene Crus
Reviewed by ADRIANA MENOLI

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Mennat El Ghalid - Mycologist
Mennat El Ghalid research aims to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying fungal biology and pathogenicity.

Why you should listen

Mycologist Mennat El Ghalid received an Initial Training Networks - Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship to pursue her PhD project in the Molecular Genetics of Fungal Pathogenicity Unit and the International Campus of Excellence in Agrifood CeiA3 at the Universidad de Cordoba (Spain). During her PhD, her former team and herself identified the compounds secreted from the plant roots attracting Fusarium oxysporum, a soilborne plant pathogenic fungus and characterized the underlying mechanisms of attraction. Such compounds were tracked since the 19th century. The discovery was published in the Nature Journal.

El Ghalid became a TED Fellow in 2017 and have been selected as one of the 100 women honorees for OkayAfrica's 2018 #OKAY100Women list for her dedicated work and for being a promising talent within the field of STEM. She is currently working at Institut Pasteur (France) in the Biology and Pathogenicity Unit to study Candida albicans, an opportunistic pathogenic fungus and the main cause of fungal infections in immunocompromised humans.

More profile about the speaker
Mennat El Ghalid | Speaker | TED.com