Differential gene expression between the biotrophic-like and saprotrophic mycelia of the witches' broom pathogen Moniliophthora perniciosa.
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.
Laboratório de Genômica e Expressão, Departamento de Genética e Evolução, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, CP 6109, Campinas 13083-970, São Paulo, Brazil.
Johana
J
Rincones
Leandra M
LM
Scarpari
Marcelo F
MF
Carazzolle
Jorge M C
JM
Mondego
Eduardo F
EF
Formighieri
Joan G
JG
Barau
Gustavo G L
GG
Costa
Dirce M
DM
Carraro
Helena P
HP
Brentani
Laurival A
LA
Vilas-Boas
Bruno V
BV
de Oliveira
Maricene
M
Sabha
Robson
R
Dias
Júlio M
JM
Cascardo
Ricardo A
RA
Azevedo
Lyndel W
LW
Meinhardt
Gonçalo A G
GA
Pereira
D000363:Agaricales / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development / Q000472:pathogenicity* / Q000502:physiology; D001483:Base Sequence; D002099:Cacao / Q000382:microbiology*; D002244:Carbon / Q000378:metabolism; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000235:genetics; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements / Q000235:genetics; D004271:DNA, Fungal / Q000235:genetics; D020224:Expressed Sequence Tags; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015966:Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal; D005800:Genes, Fungal; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000378:metabolism; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000378:metabolism; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D010935:Plant Diseases / Q000382:microbiology; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
D017931:DNA Primers; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D004271:DNA, Fungal; D002244:Carbon; D009584:Nitrogen