Faculty Opinions recommendation of The hypersensitive response facilitates plant infection by the necrotrophic pathogen Botrytis cinerea.

Author(s):  
Joy Bergelson
2000 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 724-732 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Zheng ◽  
Mathew Campbell ◽  
Jennifer Murphy ◽  
Stephen Lam ◽  
Jin-Rong Xu

In Magnaporthe grisea, a well-conserved mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase gene, PMK1, is essential for fungal pathogenesis. In this study, we tested whether the same MAP kinase is essential for plant infection in the gray mold fungus Botrytis cinerea, a necrotrophic pathogen that employs infection mechanisms different from those of M. grisea. We used a polymerase chain reaction-based approach to isolate MAP kinase homologues from B. cinerea. The Botrytis MAP kinase required for pathogenesis (BMP) MAP kinase gene is highly homologous to the M. grisea PMK1. BMP1 is a single-copy gene. bmp1 gene replacement mutants produced normal conidia and mycelia but were reduced in growth rate on nutrient-rich medium. bmp1 mutants were nonpathogenic on carnation flowers and tomato leaves. Re-introduction of the wild-type BMP1 allele into the bmp1 mutant restored both normal growth rate and pathogenicity. Further studies indicated that conidia from bmp1 mutants germinated on plant surfaces but failed to penetrate and macerate plant tissues. bmp1 mutants also appeared to be defective in infecting through wounds. These results indicated that BMP1 is essential for plant infection in B. cinerea, and this MAP kinase pathway may be widely conserved in pathogenic fungi for regulating infection processes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kai Bi ◽  
Loredana Scalschi ◽  
Namrata Jaiswal ◽  
Tesfaye Mengiste ◽  
Renana Fried ◽  
...  

AbstractCrh proteins catalyze crosslinking of chitin and glucan polymers in fungal cell walls. Here, we show that the BcCrh1 protein from the phytopathogenic fungus Botrytis cinerea acts as a cytoplasmic effector and elicitor of plant defense. BcCrh1 is localized in vacuoles and the endoplasmic reticulum during saprophytic growth. However, upon plant infection, the protein accumulates in infection cushions; it is then secreted to the apoplast and translocated into plant cells, where it induces cell death and defense responses. Two regions of 53 and 35 amino acids are sufficient for protein uptake and cell death induction, respectively. BcCrh1 mutant variants that are unable to dimerize lack transglycosylation activity, but are still able to induce plant cell death. Furthermore, Arabidopsis lines expressing the bccrh1 gene exhibit reduced sensitivity to B. cinerea, suggesting a potential use of the BcCrh1 protein in plant immunization against this necrotrophic pathogen.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pamil Tayal ◽  
Sumit Raj ◽  
Esha Sharma ◽  
Manoj Kumar ◽  
Vikram Dayaman ◽  
...  

Plants ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 601
Author(s):  
Silvio Tundo ◽  
Maria Chiara Paccanaro ◽  
Ibrahim Elmaghraby ◽  
Ilaria Moscetti ◽  
Renato D’Ovidio ◽  
...  

During host plant infection, pathogens produce a wide array of cell wall degrading enzymes (CWDEs) to break the plant cell wall. Among CWDEs, xylanases are key enzymes in the degradation of xylan, the main component of hemicellulose. Targeted deletion experiments support the direct involvement of the xylanase BcXyn11a in the pathogenesis of Botrytis cinerea. Since the Triticum aestivum xylanase inhibitor-I (TAXI-I) has been shown to inhibit BcXyn11a, we verified if TAXI-I could be exploited to counteract B. cinerea infections. With this aim, we first produced Nicotiana tabacum plants transiently expressing TAXI-I, observing increased resistance to B. cinerea. Subsequently, we transformed Arabidopsis thaliana to express TAXI-I constitutively, and we obtained three transgenic lines exhibiting a variable amount of TAXI-I. The line with the higher level of TAXI-I showed increased resistance to B. cinerea and the absence of necrotic lesions when infiltrated with BcXyn11a. Finally, in a droplet application experiment on wild-type Arabidopsis leaves, TAXI-I prevented the necrotizing activity of BcXyn11a. These results would confirm that the contribution of BcXyn11a to virulence is due to its necrotizing rather than enzymatic activity. In conclusion, our experiments highlight the ability of the TAXI-I xylanase inhibitor to counteract B. cinerea infection presumably by preventing the necrotizing activity of BcXyn11a.


Genetics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 215 (1) ◽  
pp. 253-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole E. Soltis ◽  
Celine Caseys ◽  
Wei Zhang ◽  
Jason A. Corwin ◽  
Susanna Atwell ◽  
...  

In plant–pathogen relations, disease symptoms arise from the interaction of the host and pathogen genomes. Host–pathogen functional gene interactions are well described, whereas little is known about how the pathogen genetic variation modulates both organisms’ transcriptomes. To model and generate hypotheses on a generalist pathogen control of gene expression regulation, we used the Arabidopsis thaliana–Botrytis cinerea pathosystem and the genetic diversity of a collection of 96 B. cinerea isolates. We performed expression-based genome-wide association (eGWA) for each of 23,947 measurable transcripts in Arabidopsis (host), and 9267 measurable transcripts in B. cinerea (pathogen). Unlike other eGWA studies, we detected a relative absence of locally acting expression quantitative trait loci (cis-eQTL), partly caused by structural variants and allelic heterogeneity hindering their identification. This study identified several distantly acting trans-eQTL linked to eQTL hotspots dispersed across Botrytis genome that altered only Botrytis transcripts, only Arabidopsis transcripts, or transcripts from both species. Gene membership in the trans-eQTL hotspots suggests links between gene expression regulation and both known and novel virulence mechanisms in this pathosystem. Genes annotated to these hotspots provide potential targets for blocking manipulation of the host response by this ubiquitous generalist necrotrophic pathogen.


2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (8) ◽  
pp. e1002185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neta Shlezinger ◽  
Anna Minz ◽  
Yonatan Gur ◽  
Ido Hatam ◽  
Yasin F. Dagdas ◽  
...  

Plant Disease ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 82 (8) ◽  
pp. 850-856 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Z. Islam ◽  
Y. Honda ◽  
M. Sonhaji

The germ tubes of Botrytis cinerea showed negative phototropism to near ultraviolet (NUV) and blue (300 to 520 nm) light followed by far-red (700 to 810 nm), whereas red light (600 to 700 nm) induced positive phototropism significantly. Minimum germ tube growth occurred during exposure to negative phototropism-inducing wavelengths, whereas it was maximum under positive phototropism-inducing wavelengths. NUV radiation and blue light that induced negative phototropism of B. cinerea promoted infection-hypha formation on both onion scale and broad bean (Vicia faba) leaf epidermal strips, whereas positive phototropism-inducing red light suppressed it, resulting in a high proportion of germ tubes without infection hyphae. In broad bean leaf infection, the number of infection points and area of necrosis per drop of conidial suspension were higher under NUV radiation and blue light than that of a dark control or leaflets pretreated with NUV radiation and blue light. In contrast, lower numbers of infection points and very small necrotic lesions developed under red light. In the case of red-light-pretreated leaflets, the number of infection points developed were higher, but areas of necrosis did not increase significantly compared with leaflets kept under red light without pretreatment. These results show the importance of phototropism of conidium germ tubes in plant infection.


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