Genome sequencing has dominated the last years of biological research and also been the main point of departure for biological discovery for industrial application. Most gene and enzyme discovery attempts are geared towards studying monocultures – one organism at a time. This has left the most interesting field of microbial interactions almost untapped. The current project thus takes the next step, focusing not on one organism at a time but on discovery of protein signals of importance in interactions between organisms.

This allows for a dual focus:
• To discover and identify interesting genes and their products for commercial exploitation within the food, feed and non-food industry, pharmacy and biomedicine.
• To contribute to improved biological understanding of fungal parasitic interactions – especially virulence factors - leading to development of new sustainable plant protection measures with reduced use of pesticides.

The vision is to contribute to improved product qualities, more sustainable production processes and improved use of raw materials (upgrading waste products). Special attention will be given to: Food: proteases, pectinases and lipases. Feed: hemicellulases. Biomass conversion: optimization of enzyme blends/boosters. Biomedicine: antimicrobial peptides, Plant Protection: virulence factors.

Acknowledgements
The project has been made possible due to funding from:
Ministry of Sience Technology and Innovation, Denmark
Plant Biotech, Denmark
and by Considirable funding from the partners own home institutions.