Dataset Information

The fungal-specific transcription factor Vdpf influences conidia production, melanized microsclerotia formation and pathogenicity in Verticillium dahliae.

ABSTRACT: Verticillium dahliae is a soil-borne, hemibiotrophic phytopathogenic fungus that causes wilting in crop plants. Here, we constructed a random insertional mutant library using Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation to study the pathogenicity and regulatory mechanisms of V. dahliae. The fungal-specific transcription factor-encoding gene Vdpf was shown to be associated with vegetative growth and virulence, with the highest transcript expression occurring during conidia formation in the V991 strain. The deletion mutants (?Vdpf) and insertion mutants (IM?Vdpf) produced fewer conidia than did the wild-type (WT) fungi, which contributed to the reduced virulence. Unlike the WT, the complemented strains and IM?Vdpf, ?Vdpf formed swollen, thick-walled and hyaline mycelium rather than melanized microsclerotia. The ?Vdpf mutants were melanin deficient, with undetectable expression of melanin biosynthesis-related genes (Brn1, Brn2 and Scd1). The melanin deficiency was related to cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) and the G-protein-coupled signalling pathways in this study. Similar to the WT and complemented strains, the ?Vdpf and IM?Vdpf mutants could also successfully penetrate into cotton and tobacco roots, but displayed reduced virulence because of lower biomass in the plant roots and significantly reduced expression of pathogenicity-related genes in V. dahliae. In conclusion, these results provide insights into the role of Vdpf in melanized microsclerotia formation, conidia production and pathogenicity.

SUBMITTER: Luo X

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6638448 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

The fungal-specific transcription factor Vdpf influences conidia production, melanized microsclerotia formation and pathogenicity in Verticillium dahliae.

Luo Xiumei X Mao Hongqiang H Wei Yunming Y Cai Jie J Xie Chengjian C Sui Anping A Yang Xingyong X Dong Jinyan J

Molecular plant pathology 20160413 9

Verticillium dahliae is a soil-borne, hemibiotrophic phytopathogenic fungus that causes wilting in crop plants. Here, we constructed a random insertional mutant library using Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation to study the pathogenicity and regulatory mechanisms of V. dahliae. The fungal-specific transcription factor-encoding gene Vdpf was shown to be associated with vegetative growth and virulence, with the highest transcript expression occurring during conidia formation in the V ...[more]

PMID: 26857810

Similar Datasets

Project description:BACKGROUND: The soilborne fungus, Verticillium dahliae, causes Verticillium wilt disease in plants. Verticillium wilt is difficult to control since V. dahliae is capable of persisting in the soil for 10 to 15 years as melanized microsclerotia, rendering crop rotation strategies for disease control ineffective. Microsclerotia of V. dahliae overwinter and germinate to produce infectious hyphae that give rise to primary infections. Consequently, microsclerotia formation, maintenance, and germination are critically important processes in the disease cycle of V. dahliae. RESULTS: To shed additional light on the molecular processes that contribute to microsclerotia biogenesis and melanin synthesis in V. dahliae, three replicate RNA-seq libraries were prepared from 10 day-old microsclerotia (MS)-producing cultures of V. dahliae, strain VdLs.17 (average = 52.23 million reads), and those not producing microsclerotia (NoMS, average = 50.58 million reads). Analyses of these libraries for differential gene expression revealed over 200 differentially expressed genes, including up-regulation of melanogenesis-associated genes tetrahydroxynaphthalene reductase (344-fold increase) and scytalone dehydratase (231-fold increase), and additional genes located in a 48.8 kilobase melanin biosynthetic gene cluster of strain VdLs.17. Nearly 50% of the genes identified as differentially expressed in the MS library encode hypothetical proteins. Additional comparative analyses of gene expression in V. dahliae, under growth conditions that promote or preclude microsclerotial development, were conducted using a microarray approach with RNA derived from V. dahliae strain Dvd-T5, and from the amicrosclerotial vdh1 strain. Differential expression of selected genes observed by RNA-seq or microarray analysis was confirmed using RT-qPCR or Northern hybridizations. CONCLUSION: Collectively, the data acquired from these investigations provide additional insight into gene expression and molecular processes that occur during MS biogenesis and maturation in V. dahliae. The identified gene products could therefore potentially represent new targets for disease control through prevention of survival structure development.

Dataset Information

The fungal-specific transcription factor Vdpf influences conidia production, melanized microsclerotia formation and pathogenicity in Verticillium dahliae.

Publications

The fungal-specific transcription factor Vdpf influences conidia production, melanized microsclerotia formation and pathogenicity in Verticillium dahliae.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets