title: Construction and functional analysis of Trichoderma harzianum mutants that modulate maize resistance to the pathogen Curvularia lunata.
abstract: Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation (ATMT) was used to generate an insertional mutant library of the mycelial fungus Trichoderma harzianum. From a total of 450 mutants, six mutants that showed significant influence on maize resistance to C. lunata were analyzed in detail. Maize coated with these mutants was more susceptible to C. lunata compared with those coated with a wild-type (WT) strain. Similar to other fungal ATMT libraries, all six mutants were single copy integrations, which occurred preferentially in noncoding regions (except two mutants) and were frequently accompanied by the loss of border sequences. Two mutants (T66 and T312) that were linked to resistance were characterized further. Maize seeds coated with T66 and T312 were more susceptible to C. lunata than those treated with WT. Moreover, the mutants affected the resistance of maize to C. lunata by enhancing jasmonate-responsive gene expression. T66 and T312 induced maize resistance to C. lunata infection through a jasmonic acid-dependent pathway.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Resource and Environmental Science, School of Agriculture and Biology , Shanghai Jiaotong University , Shanghai , China.
authors.forename: Lili
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.forename: Kehe
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.forename: Chuanjin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Jia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Yaqian
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D016960:Agrobacterium tumefaciens / Q000235:genetics; D001203:Ascomycota / Q000502:physiology*; D061046:Biological Control Agents; D005656:Fungal Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D006026:Glycoside Hydrolases / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016254:Mutagenesis, Insertional; D010935:Plant Diseases / Q000235:genetics* / Q000382:microbiology; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D014242:Trichoderma / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D003313:Zea mays / Q000382:microbiology*
chemical_list: D061046:Biological Control Agents; D005656:Fungal Proteins; D006026:Glycoside Hydrolases
keywords: ATMT; Curvularia lunata; Trichoderma harzianum; pathogen resistance