A phenome-based functional analysis of transcription factors in the cereal head blight fungus, Fusarium graminearum.
Fusarium graminearum is an important plant pathogen that causes head blight of major cereal crops. The fungus produces mycotoxins that are harmful to animal and human. In this study, a systematic analysis of 17 phenotypes of the mutants in 657 Fusarium graminearum genes encoding putative transcription factors (TFs) resulted in a database of over 11,000 phenotypes (phenome). This database provides comprehensive insights into how this cereal pathogen of global significance regulates traits important for growth, development, stress response, pathogenesis, and toxin production and how transcriptional regulations of these traits are interconnected. In-depth analysis of TFs involved in sexual development revealed that mutations causing defects in perithecia development frequently affect multiple other phenotypes, and the TFs associated with sexual development tend to be highly conserved in the fungal kingdom. Besides providing many new insights into understanding the function of F. graminearum TFs, this mutant library and phenome will be a valuable resource for characterizing the gene expression network in this fungus and serve as a reference for studying how different fungi have evolved to control various cellular processes at the transcriptional level.
Department of Agricultural Biotechnology and Centers for Fungal Pathogenesis and Agricultural Biomaterials, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea.
Hokyoung
H
Son
Young-Su
YS
Seo
Kyunghun
K
Min
Ae Ran
AR
Park
Jungkwan
J
Lee
Jian-Ming
JM
Jin
Yang
Y
Lin
Peijian
P
Cao
Sae-Yeon
SY
Hong
Eun-Kyung
EK
Kim
Seung-Ho
SH
Lee
Aram
A
Cho
Seunghoon
S
Lee
Myung-Gu
MG
Kim
Yongsoo
Y
Kim
Jung-Eun
JE
Kim
Jin-Cheol
JC
Kim
Gyung Ja
GJ
Choi
Sung-Hwan
SH
Yun
Jae Yun
JY
Lim
Minkyun
M
Kim
Yong-Hwan
YH
Lee
Yang-Do
YD
Choi
Yin-Won
YW
Lee
D005670:Fusarium / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000472:pathogenicity; D015870:Gene Expression; D015966:Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal; D016681:Genome, Fungal; D009154:Mutation; D010641:Phenotype; D010935:Plant Diseases / Q000235:genetics* / Q000382:microbiology; D018521:Plant Physiological Phenomena; D012723:Sex; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D014908:Triticum / Q000382:microbiology*
D014157:Transcription Factors