Project description:Mycosphaerella graminicola is the causal agent of Mycosphaerella graminicola infection (STB) disease of wheat. Wheat genotypes vary in their response to this disease. Cultivar (cv.) Longbow is susceptible and cv. Flame is resistant to STB disease, with cv. Flame possessing the STB resistance locus Stb6 that confers resistance to pathogen strain IPO323. Gene expression profiling (conducted using Affymetrix wheat gene chip) identified transcripts that accumulate in leaves of both these wheat cultivars as an early response to M. graminicola strain IPO323 (at 24h post-treatment). At this initial time point, microscopic analysis verified that fungal spores had germinated, but not penetrated the leaves of both genotypes. Results showed that basal defence genes were activated in both the compatible and incompatible interactions. A subset of genes were identified that were more pathogen-responsive in the cv. Flame v. IPO323 incompatible interaction as compared to the cv. Longbow v. IPO323 compatible interaction, including defence genes such as peroxidases, beta-1,3-glucanase, annexin, chitinases, brassinosteroid-associated kinase 1 and a jasmonate-inducible protein.
Project description:In order to gain a first insight into the Mycosphaerella graminicola global transcriptome in different nutritional environments, we performed initial experiments on two in vitro growth conditions during log-phase growth and on infected plant material twenty-eight days after inoculation. In vitro log phase growth in nutrient-rich Potato Dextrose Broth (PDB) was used as a control in independent comparisons with 1) log phase growth in nutrient-limiting Czapek-Dox Broth (CDB) and 2) twenty-eight days of plant infection. Growth in PDB results in a rapid budding type growth of the M. graminicola sporidia. Growth in CDB is phenotypically similar in that the fungus continues to grow as budding sporidia but this occurs at approximately 20% of the rate in PDB. In contrast, late stage infected plant material contains fungus growing as filamentous hyphae, generating pycnidia and sporulating. At this stage the plant material is completely senesced and the RNA isolated from this tissue is entirely of fungal origin. The complete lack of plant RNA enabled the microarray comparison to be made against growth in PDB. In order to generate statistically significant data for further analysis sixteen independent microarray blocks were hybridised for each experiment. Within these sixteen replicates were three biological repeats. For data analysis we employed limits of a two-fold cut-off in expression based upon statistical analysis of the replicate hybridisations (P <0.01).
Project description:Mycosphaerella, one of the largest genera of ascomycetes, encompasses several thousand species and has anamorphs residing in more than 30 form genera. Although previous phylogenetic studies based on the ITS rDNA locus supported the monophyly of the genus, DNA sequence data derived from the LSU gene distinguish several clades and families in what has hitherto been considered to represent the Mycosphaerellaceae. Several important leaf spotting and extremotolerant species need to be disposed to the genus Teratosphaeria, for which a new family, the Teratosphaeriaceae, is introduced. Other distinct clades represent the Schizothyriaceae, Davidiellaceae, Capnodiaceae, and the Mycosphaerellaceae. Within the two major clades, namely Teratosphaeriaceae and Mycosphaerellaceae, most anamorph genera are polyphyletic, and new anamorph concepts need to be derived to cope with dual nomenclature within the Mycosphaerella complex.
Project description:Species in the present study were compared based on their morphology, growth characteristics in culture, and DNA sequences of the nuclear ribosomal RNA gene operon (including ITS1, ITS2, 5.8S nrDNA and the first 900 bp of the 28S nrDNA) for all species and partial actin and translation elongation factor 1-alpha gene sequences for Cladosporium species. New species of Mycosphaerella (Mycosphaerellaceae) introduced in this study include M. cerastiicola (on Cerastium semidecandrum, The Netherlands), and M. etlingerae (on Etlingera elatior, Hawaii). Mycosphaerella holualoana is newly reported on Hedychium coronarium (Hawaii). Epitypes are also designated for Hendersonia persooniae, the basionym of Camarosporula persooniae, and for Sphaerella agapanthi, the basionym of Teratosphaeria agapanthi comb. nov. (Teratosphaeriaceae) on Agapathus umbellatus from South Africa. The latter pathogen is also newly recorded from A. umbellatus in Europe (Portugal). Furthermore, two sexual species of Cladosporium (Davidiellaceae) are described, namely C. grevilleae (on Grevillea sp., Australia), and C. silenes (on Silene maritima, UK). Finally, the phylogenetic position of two genera are newly confirmed, namely Camarosporula (based on C. persooniae, teleomorph Anthracostroma persooniae), which is a leaf pathogen of Persoonia spp. in Australia, belongs to the Teratosphaeriaceae, and Sphaerulina (based on S. myriadea), which occurs on leaves of Fagaceae (Carpinus, Castanopsis, Fagus, Quercus), and belongs to the Mycosphaerellaceae.