Dataset Information

Transcriptome analysis of Sporisorium scitamineum reveals critical environmental signals for fungal sexual mating and filamentous growth.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Sporisorium scitamineum causes the sugarcane smut disease, one of the most serious constraints to global sugarcane production. S. scitamineum possesses a sexual mating system composed of two mating-type loci, a and b locus. We previously identified and deleted the b locus in S. scitamineum, and found that the resultant Ss?MAT-1b mutant was defective in mating and pathogenicity. RESULTS:To further understand the function of b-mating locus, we carried out transcriptome analysis by comparing the transcripts of the mutant strain Ss?MAT-1b, from which the SsbE1 and SsbW1 homeodomain transcription factors have previously been deleted, with those from the wild-type MAT-1 strain. Also the transcripts from Ss?MAT-1b X MAT-2 were compared with those from wild-type MAT-1 X MAT-2 mating. A total of 209 genes were up-regulated (p?

SUBMITTER: Yan M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4867532 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Transcriptome analysis of Sporisorium scitamineum reveals critical environmental signals for fungal sexual mating and filamentous growth.

Yan Meixin M Dai Weijun W Cai Enping E Deng Yi Zhen YZ Chang Changqing C Jiang Zide Z Zhang Lian-Hui LH

BMC genomics 20160516

<h4>Background</h4>Sporisorium scitamineum causes the sugarcane smut disease, one of the most serious constraints to global sugarcane production. S. scitamineum possesses a sexual mating system composed of two mating-type loci, a and b locus. We previously identified and deleted the b locus in S. scitamineum, and found that the resultant SsΔMAT-1b mutant was defective in mating and pathogenicity.<h4>Results</h4>To further understand the function of b-mating locus, we carried out transcriptome an ...[more]

PMID: 27185248

Similar Datasets

Project description:Sugarcane smut, caused by the basidiomycetous fungus Sporisorium scitamineum, is a global fungal disease resulting in substantial economic losses. Our previous research has highlighted the significant role of reactive oxide species (ROS) in the sexual reproduction of S. scitamineum, yet the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, we identified the cytochrome c-peroxidase encoding gene, SsCCP1, as crucial for oxidative stress resistance. We further found that absence of SsCcp1 leads to defects in mating/filamentation and disrupts intracellular ROS homeostasis. However, restoration of mating/filamentation of SsCCP1 deletion mutants was partially achieved with exogenous antioxidants (vitamin C or vitamin E). Notably, transcription of the pheromone response factor SsPRF1, pivotal for mating/filamentation of S. scitamineum, is significantly reduced in the SsCCP1 deletion mutants or under exogenous hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) conditions. Nevertheless, the addition of exogenous vitamin C for 60 min significantly up-regulated the SsPRF1 gene in the SsCCP1 deletion mutants. Moreover, the constitutive expression of SsPRF1 essentially reinstated the mating/filamentation of SsCCP1 deletion mutants, suggesting that SsCcp1 mediates the transcriptional activity of SsPRF1 by maintaining ROS homeostasis to regulate the mating/filamentation of S. scitamineum. Further investigations revealed that SsCcp1 is necessary for ROS detoxification and full pathogenicity in planta. Overall, this study not only unveils the importance of SsCcp1 in S. scitamineum mating/filamentation, ROS detoxification, and virulence but also provides insights into the role of SsCcp1-regulated ROS homeostasis in sexual reproduction of S. scitamineum. IMPORTANCE Reactive oxygen species play an important role in pathogen-plant interactions. In fungi, cytochrome c-peroxidase maintains intracellular ROS homeostasis by utilizing H2O2 as an electron acceptor to oxidize ferrocytochrome c, thereby contributing to disease pathogenesis. In this study, our investigation reveals that the cytochrome c-peroxidase encoding gene, SsCCP1, not only plays a key role in resisting H2O2 toxicity but is also essential for the mating/filamentation and pathogenicity of S. scitamineum. We further uncover that SsCcp1 mediates the expression of SsPrf1 by maintaining intracellular ROS homeostasis to regulate S. scitamineum mating/filamentation. Our findings provide novel insights into how cytochrome c-peroxidase regulates sexual reproduction in phytopathogenic fungi, presenting a theoretical foundation for designing new disease control strategies.

Project description:Sporisorium scitamineum is the fungal pathogen causing severe sugarcane smut disease that leads to massive economic losses globally. S. scitamineum invades host cane by dikaryotic hyphae, formed after sexual mating of two haploid sporidia of opposite mating type. Therefore, mating/filamentation is critical for S. scitamineum pathogenicity, while its molecular mechanisms remain largely unknown. The AGC (cyclic AMP [cAMP]-dependent protein kinase 1 [protein kinase A {PKA}], cGMP-dependent protein kinase [PKG], and protein kinase C [PKC]) kinase family is a group of serine/threonine (Ser/Thr) protein kinases conserved among eukaryotic genomes, serving a variety of physiological functions, including cell growth, metabolism, differentiation, and cell death. In this study, we identified an AGC kinase, named SsAgc1 (for S. scitamineum Agc1), and characterized its function by reverse genetics. Our results showed that SsAgc1 is critical for S. scitamineum mating/filamentation and pathogenicity, and oxidative stress tolerance under some circumstances. Transcriptional profiling revealed that the SsAgc1 signaling pathway may control expression of the genes governing fungal mating/filamentation and tryptophan metabolism, especially for tryptophol production. We showed that tryptophan and tryptophol could at least partially restore ssagc1Δ mating/filamentation. Overall, our work revealed a signaling pathway mediated by AGC protein kinases to regulate fungal mating/filamentation, possibly through sensing and responding to tryptophol as signal molecules.IMPORTANCE The AGC signaling pathway represents a conserved distinct signaling pathway in regulation of fungal differentiation and virulence, while it has not been identified or characterized in the sugarcane smut fungus Sporisorium scitamineum In this study, we identified a PAS domain-containing AGC kinase, SsAgc1, in S. scitamineum Functional analysis revealed that SsAgc1 plays a regulatory role on the fungal dimorphic switch.

Project description:Sugarcane is an important sugar crop and energy crop worldwide. Sugarcane smut caused by Sporisorium scitamineum is a serious fungal disease that occurs worldwide, seriously affecting the yield and quality of sugarcane. It is essential to reveal the molecular pathogenesis of S. scitamineum to explore a new control strategy of sugarcane smut. Based on transcriptome sequencing data of two S. scitamineum strains Ss16 and Ss47, each with a different pathogenicity, our laboratory screened out the SsCI80130 gene predicted to encode squalene monooxygenase. In this study, we obtained the knockout mutants (ΔSs80130+ and ΔSs80130-) and complementary mutants (COM80130+ and COM80130-) of this gene by the polyethylene glycol-mediated (PEG-mediated) protoplast transformation technology, and then performed a functional analysis of the gene. The results showed that the deletion of the SsCI80130 gene resulted in the increased content of squalene (substrate for squalene monooxygenase) and decreased content of ergosterol (the final product of the ergosterol synthesis pathway) in S. scitamineum. Meanwhile, the sporidial growth rate of the knockout mutants was significantly slower than that of the wild type and complementary mutants; under cell-wall stress or oxidative stress, the growth of the knockout mutants was significantly inhibited. In addition, the sexual mating ability and pathogenicity of knockout mutants were significantly weakened, while the sexual mating ability could be restored by adding exogenous small-molecular signal substance cAMP (cyclic adenosine monophosphate) or tryptophol. It is speculated that the SsCI80130 gene was involved in the ergosterol biosynthesis in S. scitamineum and played an important role in the sporidial growth, stress response to different abiotic stresses (including cell wall stress and oxidative stress), sexual mating/filamentation and pathogenicity. Moreover, the SsCI80130 gene may affect the sexual mating and pathogenicity of S. scitamineum by regulating the ergosterol synthesis and the synthesis of the small-molecular signal substance cAMP or tryptophol required for sexual mating. This study reveals for the first time that the gene encoding squalene monooxygenase is involved in regulating the sexual mating and pathogenicity of S. scitamineum, providing a basis for the molecular pathogenic mechanism of S. scitamineum.

Dataset Information

Transcriptome analysis of Sporisorium scitamineum reveals critical environmental signals for fungal sexual mating and filamentous growth.

Publications

Transcriptome analysis of Sporisorium scitamineum reveals critical environmental signals for fungal sexual mating and filamentous growth.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets