scholarly journals RNA Silencing in the Phytopathogenic Fungus Magnaporthe oryzae

2003 ◽  
Vol 16 (9) ◽  
pp. 769-776 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naoki Kadotani ◽  
Hitoshi Nakayashiki ◽  
Yukio Tosa ◽  
Shigeyuki Mayama

Systematic analysis of RNA silencing was carried out in the blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae (formerly Magnaporthe grisea) using the enhanced green fluorescence protein (eGFP) gene as a model. To assess the ability of RNA species to induce RNA silencing in the fungus, plasmid constructs expressing sense, antisense, and hairpin RNAs were introduced into an eGFP-expressing transformant. The fluorescence of eGFP in the transformant was silenced much more efficiently by hairpin RNA of eGFP than by other RNA species. In the silenced transformants, the accumulation of eGFP mRNA was drastically reduced, but no methylation of the promoter or coding region was involved in it. In addition, we found small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) only in the silenced transformants. Interestingly, the siRNAs consisted of RNA molecules with at least three different sizes ranging from 19 to 23 nucleotides, and all of them contained both sense and antisense strands of the eGFP gene. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration in which different molecular sizes of siRNAs have been found in filamentous fungi. Overall, these results indicate that RNA silencing operates in M. oryzae, which gives us a new tool for genome-wide gene analysis in this fungus.

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Munir Mawassi ◽  
Valerian Dolja

RNA silencing is a defense mechanism that functions against virus infection and involves sequence-specific degradation of viral RNA. Diverse RNA and DNA viruses of plants encode RNA silencing suppressors (RSSs), which, in addition to their role in viral counterdefense, were implicated in the efficient accumulation of viral RNAs, virus transport, pathogenesis, and determination of the virus host range. Despite rapidly growing understanding of the mechanisms of RNA silencing suppression, systematic analysis of the roles played by diverse RSSs in virus biology and pathology is yet to be completed. Our research was aimed at conducting such analysis for two grapevine viruses, Grapevine virus A (GVA) and Grapevine leafroll-associated virus-2 (GLRaV- 2). Our major achievements on the previous cycle of BARD funding are as follows. 1. GVA and GLRaV-2 were engineered into efficient gene expression and silencing vectors for grapevine. The efficient techniques for grapevine infection resulting in systemic expression or silencing of the recombinant genes were developed. Therefore, GVA and GLRaV-2 were rendered into powerful tools of grapevine virology and functional genomics. 2. The GVA and GLRaV-2 RSSs, p10 and p24, respectively, were identified, and their roles in viral pathogenesis were determined. In particular, we found that p10 functions in suppression and pathogenesis are genetically separable. 3. We revealed that p10 is a self-interactive protein that is targeted to the nucleus. In contrast, p24 mechanism involves binding small interfering RNAs in the cytoplasm. We have also demonstrated that p10 is relatively weak, whereas p24 is extremely strong enhancer of the viral agroinfection. 4. We found that, in addition to the dedicated RSSs, GVA and GLRaV-2 counterdefenses involve ORF1 product and leader proteases, respectively. 5. We have teamed up with Dr. Koonin and Dr. Falnes groups to study the evolution and function of the AlkB domain presents in GVA and many other plant viruses. It was demonstrated that viral AlkBs are RNA-specific demethylases thus providing critical support for the biological relevance of the novel process of AlkB-mediated RNA repair. 


2008 ◽  
Vol 83 (3) ◽  
pp. 1332-1340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edgar A. Rodríguez-Negrete ◽  
Jimena Carrillo-Tripp ◽  
Rafael F. Rivera-Bustamante

ABSTRACT RNA silencing in plants is a natural defense system mechanism against invading nucleic acids such as viruses. Geminiviruses, a family of plant viruses characterized by a circular, single-stranded DNA genome, are thought to be both inducers and targets of RNA silencing. Some natural geminivirus-host interactions lead to symptom remission or host recovery, a process commonly associated with RNA silencing-mediated defense. Pepper golden mosaic virus (PepGMV)-infected pepper plants show a recovery phenotype, which has been associated with the presence of virus-derived small RNAs. The results presented here suggest that PepGMV is targeted by both posttranscriptional and transcriptional gene silencing mechanisms. Two types of virus-related small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) were detected: siRNAs of 21 to 22 nucleotides (nt) in size that are related to the coding regions (Rep, TrAP, REn, and movement protein genes) and a 24-nt population primarily associated to the intergenic regions. Methylation levels of the PepGMV A intergenic and coat protein (CP) coding region were measured by a bisulfite sequencing approach. An inverse correlation was observed between the methylation status of the intergenic region and the concentration of viral DNA and symptom severity. The intergenic region also showed a methylation profile conserved in all times analyzed. The CP region, on the other hand, did not show a defined profile, and its methylation density was significantly lower than the one found on the intergenic region. The participation of both PTGS and TGS mechanisms in host recovery is discussed.


2006 ◽  
Vol 80 (20) ◽  
pp. 10055-10063 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian Valli ◽  
Ana Montserrat Martín-Hernández ◽  
Juan José López-Moya ◽  
Juan Antonio García

ABSTRACT The P1 protein of viruses of the family Potyviridae is a serine proteinase, which is highly variable in length and sequence, and its role in the virus infection cycle is not clear. One of the proposed activities of P1 is to assist HCPro, the product that viruses of the genus Potyvirus use to counteract antiviral defense mediated by RNA silencing. Indeed, an HCPro-coding region is present in all the genomes of members of the genera Potyvirus, Rymovirus, and Tritimovirus that have been sequenced. However, it was recently reported that a sequence coding for HCPro is lacking in the genome of Cucumber vein yellowing virus (CVYV), a member of the genus Ipomovirus, the fourth monopartite genus of the family. In this study, we provide further evidence that P1 enhances the activity of HCPro in members of the genus Potyvirus and show that it is duplicated in the ipomovirus CVYV. The two CVYV P1 copies are arranged in tandem, and the second copy (P1b) has RNA silencing suppression activity. CVYV P1b suppressed RNA silencing induced either by sense green fluorescent protein (GFP) mRNA or by a GFP inverted repeat RNA, indicating that CVYV P1b acts downstream of the formation of double-stranded RNA. CVYV P1b also suppressed local silencing in agroinfiltrated patches of transgenic Nicotiana benthamiana line 16c and delayed its propagation to the neighboring cells. However, neither the short-distance nor long-distance systemic spread of silencing of the GFP transgene was completely blocked by CVYV P1b. CVYV P1b and P1-HCPro from the potyvirus Plum pox virus showed very similar behaviors in all the assays carried out, suggesting that evolution has found a way to counteract RNA silencing by similar mechanisms using very different proteins in viruses of the same family.


2008 ◽  
Vol 87 (11) ◽  
pp. 992-1003 ◽  
Author(s):  
P.N. Pushparaj ◽  
J.J. Aarthi ◽  
J. Manikandan ◽  
S.D. Kumar

RNA interference (RNAi), an accurate and potent gene-silencing method, was first experimentally documented in 1998 in Caenorhabditis elegans by Fire et al., who subsequently were awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine. Subsequent RNAi studies have demonstrated the clinical potential of synthetic small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) or short hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) in dental diseases, eye diseases, cancer, metabolic diseases, neurodegenerative disorders, and other illnesses. siRNAs are generally from 21 to 25 base-pairs (bp) in length and have sequence-homology-driven gene-knockdown capability. RNAi offers researchers an effortless tool for investigating biological systems by selectively silencing genes. Key technical aspects—such as optimization of selectivity, stability, in vivo delivery, efficacy, and safety—need to be investigated before RNAi can become a successful therapeutic strategy. Nevertheless, this area shows a huge potential for the pharmaceutical industry around the globe. Interestingly, recent studies have shown that the small RNA molecules, either indigenously produced as microRNAs (miRNAs) or exogenously administered synthetic dsRNAs, could effectively activate a particular gene in a sequence-specific manner instead of silencing it. This novel, but still uncharacterized, phenomenon has been termed ‘RNA activation’ (RNAa). In this review, we analyze these research findings and discussed the in vivo applications of siRNAs, miRNAs, and shRNAs.


2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (18) ◽  
pp. 5850-5855 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yongli Qiao ◽  
Jinxia Shi ◽  
Yi Zhai ◽  
Yingnan Hou ◽  
Wenbo Ma

A broad range of parasites rely on the functions of effector proteins to subvert host immune response and facilitate disease development. The notorious Phytophthora pathogens evolved effectors with RNA silencing suppression activity to promote infection in plant hosts. Here we report that the Phytophthora Suppressor of RNA Silencing 1 (PSR1) can bind to an evolutionarily conserved nuclear protein containing the aspartate–glutamate–alanine–histidine-box RNA helicase domain in plants. This protein, designated PSR1-Interacting Protein 1 (PINP1), regulates the accumulation of both microRNAs and endogenous small interfering RNAs in Arabidopsis. A null mutation of PINP1 causes embryonic lethality, and silencing of PINP1 leads to developmental defects and hypersusceptibility to Phytophthora infection. These phenotypes are reminiscent of transgenic plants expressing PSR1, supporting PINP1 as a direct virulence target of PSR1. We further demonstrate that the localization of the Dicer-like 1 protein complex is impaired in the nucleus of PINP1-silenced or PSR1-expressing cells, indicating that PINP1 may facilitate small RNA processing by affecting the assembly of dicing complexes. A similar function of PINP1 homologous genes in development and immunity was also observed in Nicotiana benthamiana. These findings highlight PINP1 as a previously unidentified component of RNA silencing that regulates distinct classes of small RNAs in plants. Importantly, Phytophthora has evolved effectors to target PINP1 in order to promote infection.


2007 ◽  
Vol 44 (10) ◽  
pp. 1050-1064 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Meng ◽  
Gayatri Patel ◽  
Melanie Heist ◽  
Melania F. Betts ◽  
Sara L. Tucker ◽  
...  

2001 ◽  
Vol 85 (04) ◽  
pp. 577-579 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Oldenburg

SummaryHaemophilia A is a X-linked recessive bleeding disorder caused by deficiency or absence of coagulation factor VIII (FVIII) due to heterogeneous defects in the FVIII gene. The large size of the FVIII gene (26 exons spanning 186 kb) has hampered mutation analysis for many years. In 1991 the first systematic analysis of the complete coding region of the FVIII gene was performed by Higuchi et al. using Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis (DGGE) as a mutation screening method (1, 2). Notably, the causative mutation was not found in about half of the severely affected patients (1). This mystery was solved in 1993, when the intron 22 inversion was discovered (3, 4) that accounts for about 50% of the severe haemophilia A cases. The inversion mutation can be easily detected by Southern Blot. A recently described PCR-based method is more sophisticated, however once established, it allows rapid and convenient detection of the intron 22 inversion (5).


2009 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yulin Jia

Although M. oryzae has been studied under extensively for several decades worldwide, descriptions of methods for efficient single spore isolation from diseased leaves from the field are not available. The ability to isolate the fungus from field samples is essential for specialists around the globe to study M. oryzae. The objective of this study was to develop a user-friendly method to isolate and evaluate M. oryzae from field samples. Accepted for publication 30 September 2009. Published 15 December 2009.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 2106
Author(s):  
Yan Zhang ◽  
Hui Wang ◽  
Ruigang Yang ◽  
Lihao Wang ◽  
Guanpin Yang ◽  
...  

Eukaryotic filamentous yellow-green algae from the Tribonema genus are considered to be excellent candidates for biofuels and value-added products, owing to their ability to grow under autotrophic, mixotrophic, and heterotrophic conditions and synthesize large amounts of fatty acids, especially unsaturated fatty acids. To elucidate the molecular mechanism of fatty acids and/or establish the organism as a model strain, the development of genetic methods is important. Towards this goal, here, we constructed a genetic transformation method to introduce exogenous genes for the first time into the eukaryotic filamentous alga Tribonema minus via particle bombardment. In this study, we constructed pSimple-tub-eGFP and pEASY-tub-nptⅡ plasmids in which the green fluorescence protein (eGFP) gene and the neomycin phosphotransferase Ⅱ-encoding G418-resistant gene (nptⅡ) were flanked by the T. minus-derived tubulin gene (tub) promoter and terminator, respectively. The two plasmids were introduced into T. minus cells through particle-gun bombardment under various test conditions. By combining agar and liquid selecting methods to exclude the pseudotransformants under long-term antibiotic treatment, plasmids pSimple-tub-eGFP and pEASY-tub- nptⅡ were successfully transformed into the genome of T. minus, which was verified using green fluorescence detection and the polymerase chain reaction, respectively. These results suggest new possibilities for efficient genetic engineering of T. minus for future genetic improvement.


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