Differential Gene Expression Between the Biotrophic-Like and Saprotrophic Mycelia of the Witches' Broom Pathogen Moniliophthora perniciosa

• Published in: Molecular plant-microbe interactions Vol. 21; no. 7; pp. 891 - 908
• Main Authors: Rincones, Johana, Scarpari, Leandra M, Carazzolle, Marcelo F, Mondego, Jorge M.C, Formighieri, Eduardo F, Barau, Joan G, Costa, Gustavo G.L, Carraro, Dirce M, Brentani, Helena P, Vilas-Boas, Laurival A, Oliveira, Bruno V. de, Sabha, Maricene, Dias, Robson, Cascardo, Julio M, Azevedo, Ricardo A, Meinhardt, Lyndel W
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: St Paul, MN APS Press 01-07-2008; The American Phytopathological Society
• Subjects: Agaricales - genetics; Agaricales - growth & development; Agaricales - pathogenicity; Agaricales - physiology; Base Sequence; Biological and medical sciences; Cacao - microbiology; Carbon - metabolism; complementary DNA; detritivores; DNA microarrays; DNA Primers - genetics; DNA Transposable Elements - genetics; DNA, Fungal - genetics; Expressed Sequence Tags; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Fungal plant pathogens; Gene Expression Profiling; gene expression regulation; Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal; Genes, Fungal; Host-Pathogen Interactions - genetics; Host-Pathogen Interactions - physiology; microarray technology; Mitochondria - metabolism; Molecular Sequence Data; Moniliophthora; Moniliophthora perniciosa; mycelium; Nitrogen - metabolism; nucleic acid hybridization; Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; Phytopathology. Animal pests. Plant and forest protection; Plant Diseases - microbiology; plant pathogenic fungi; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; Saccharomyces cerevisiae; Theobroma cacao; transcription (genetics); witches' broom; Ascomycota; Yeast; RNA-directed DNA polymerase; Nucleotide sequence; Growth rate; Enzyme; Transferases; DNA chip; Dimorphism; Gene expression; Real time; In vitro; Fungi; Polymerase chain reaction; Nucleotidyltransferases; Mitochondria; DNA microarrays; Complementary DNA; Gene; Oxidative phosphorylation; Fungi Imperfecti; Sequence tagged site; Saccharomyces cerevisiae; Catabolic repression
• ISSN: 0894-0282; 1943-7706
• DOI: 10.1094/MPMI-21-7-0891

Moniliophthora perniciosa is a hemibiotrophic fungus that causes witches' broom disease (WBD) in cacao. Marked dimorphism characterizes this fungus, showing a monokaryotic or biotrophic phase that causes disease symptoms and a later dikaryotic or saprotrophic phase. A combined strategy of DNA microarray, expressed sequence tag, and real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction analyses was employed to analyze differences between these two fungal stages in vitro. In all, 1,131 putative genes were hybridized with cDNA from different phases, resulting in 189 differentially expressed genes, and 4,595 reads were clusterized, producing 1,534 unigenes. The analysis of these genes, which represent approximately 21% of the total genes, indicates that the biotrophic-like phase undergoes carbon and nitrogen catabolite repression that correlates to the expression of phytopathogenicity genes. Moreover, downregulation of mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation and the presence of a putative ngr1 of Saccharomyces cerevisiae could help explain its lower growth rate. In contrast, the saprotrophic mycelium expresses genes related to the metabolism of hexoses, ammonia, and oxidative phosphorylation, which could explain its faster growth. Antifungal toxins were upregulated and could prevent the colonization by competing fungi. This work significantly contributes to our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of WBD and, to our knowledge, is the first to analyze differential gene expression of the different phases of a hemibiotrophic fungus.