Dataset Information

Genome structure and reproductive behaviour influence the evolutionary potential of a fungal phytopathogen.

ABSTRACT: Modern agriculture favours the selection and spread of novel plant diseases. Furthermore, crop genetic resistance against pathogens is often rendered ineffective within a few years of its commercial deployment. Leptosphaeria maculans, the cause of phoma stem canker of oilseed rape, develops gene-for-gene interactions with its host plant, and has a high evolutionary potential to render ineffective novel sources of resistance in crops. Here, we established a four-year field experiment to monitor the evolution of populations confronted with the newly released Rlm7 resistance and to investigate the nature of the mutations responsible for virulence against Rlm7. A total of 2551 fungal isolates were collected from experimental crops of a Rlm7 cultivar or a cultivar without Rlm7. All isolates were phenotyped for virulence and a subset was genotyped with neutral genetic markers. Virulent isolates were investigated for molecular events at the AvrLm4-7 locus. Whilst virulent isolates were not found in neighbouring crops, their frequency had reached 36% in the experimental field after four years. An extreme diversity of independent molecular events leading to virulence was identified in populations, with large-scale Repeat Induced Point mutations or complete deletion of AvrLm4-7 being the most frequent. Our data suggest that increased mutability of fungal genes involved in the interactions with plants is directly related to their genomic environment and reproductive system. Thus, rapid allelic diversification of avirulence genes can be generated in L. maculans populations in a single field provided that large population sizes and sexual reproduction are favoured by agricultural practices.

SUBMITTER: Daverdin G

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3493481 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Genome structure and reproductive behaviour influence the evolutionary potential of a fungal phytopathogen.

Daverdin Guillaume G Rouxel Thierry T Gout Lilian L Aubertot Jean-Noël JN Fudal Isabelle I Meyer Michel M Parlange Francis F Carpezat Julien J Balesdent Marie-Hélène MH

PLoS pathogens 20121108 11

Modern agriculture favours the selection and spread of novel plant diseases. Furthermore, crop genetic resistance against pathogens is often rendered ineffective within a few years of its commercial deployment. Leptosphaeria maculans, the cause of phoma stem canker of oilseed rape, develops gene-for-gene interactions with its host plant, and has a high evolutionary potential to render ineffective novel sources of resistance in crops. Here, we established a four-year field experiment to monitor t ...[more]

PMID: 23144620

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Project description:Animals must tailor their life-history strategies to suit the prevailing conditions and respond to hazards in the environment. Animals with lethal infections are faced with a difficult choice: to allocate more resources to reproduction and suffer higher mortality or to reduce reproduction with the expectation of enhanced immunity and late-age reproduction. However, the strategies employed to mediate shifts in life-history traits are largely unknown. Here, we investigate the temperature preference of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, during infection with the fungal pathogen, Metarhizium robertsii, and the consequence of temperature preference on life-history traits. We have measured the temperature preference of fruit flies under different pathogen conditions. We conducted multiple fitness assays of the host and the pathogen under different thermal conditions. From these data, we estimated standard measures of fitness and used age-specific methodologies to test for the fitness trade-offs that are thought to underlie differences in life-history strategy. We found that fungus-infected fruit flies seek out cooler temperatures, which facilitates an adaptive shift in their life-history strategy. The colder temperatures preferred by infected animals were detrimental to the pathogen because it increased resistance to infection. But, it did not provide net benefits that were specific to infected animals, as cooler temperatures increased lifetime reproductive success and survival whether or not the animals were infected. Instead, we find that cold-seeking benefits infected animals by increasing their late-age reproductive output, at a cost to their early-age reproductive output. In contrast, naive control flies prefer warmer temperatures that optimize early-age reproductive, at a cost to reproductive output at late ages. These findings show that infected animals exhibit fundamentally different reproductive strategies than their healthy counterparts. Temperature preference can facilitate shifts in strategy, but not without inevitable trade-offs.

Dataset Information

Genome structure and reproductive behaviour influence the evolutionary potential of a fungal phytopathogen.

Publications

Genome structure and reproductive behaviour influence the evolutionary potential of a fungal phytopathogen.

Similar Datasets

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