title: The Microbial Opsin Homolog Sop1 is involved in Sclerotinia sclerotiorum Development and Environmental Stress Response.
abstract: Microbial opsins play a crucial role in responses to various environmental signals. Here, we report that the microbial opsin homolog gene sop1 from the necrotrophic phytopathogenic fungus Sclerotinia sclerotiorum was dramatically up-regulated during infection and sclerotial development compared with the vegetative growth stage. Further, study showed that sop1 was essential for growth, sclerotial development and full virulence of S. sclerotiorum. Sop1-silenced transformants were more sensitive to high salt stress, fungicides and high osmotic stress. However, they were more tolerant to oxidative stress compared with the wild-type strain, suggesting that sop1 is involved in different stress responses and fungicide resistance, which plays a role in the environmental adaptability of S. sclerotiorum. Furthermore, a Delta blast search showed that microbial opsins are absent from the genomes of animals and most higher plants, indicating that sop1 is a potential drug target for disease control of S. sclerotiorum.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, Huazhong Agricultural UniversityWuhan, China; The Provincial Key Lab of Plant Pathology of Hubei Province, College of Plant Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural UniversityWuhan, China.
authors.forename: Xueliang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Lyu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, Huazhong Agricultural UniversityWuhan, China; The Provincial Key Lab of Plant Pathology of Hubei Province, College of Plant Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural UniversityWuhan, China.
authors.forename: Cuicui
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: The Provincial Key Lab of Plant Pathology of Hubei Province, College of Plant Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University Wuhan, China.
authors.forename: Yanping
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.affiliation: The Provincial Key Lab of Plant Pathology of Hubei Province, College of Plant Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University Wuhan, China.
authors.forename: Jiatao
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, Huazhong Agricultural UniversityWuhan, China; The Provincial Key Lab of Plant Pathology of Hubei Province, College of Plant Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural UniversityWuhan, China.
authors.forename: Daohong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, Huazhong Agricultural UniversityWuhan, China; The Provincial Key Lab of Plant Pathology of Hubei Province, College of Plant Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural UniversityWuhan, China.
authors.forename: Guoqing
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, Huazhong Agricultural UniversityWuhan, China; The Provincial Key Lab of Plant Pathology of Hubei Province, College of Plant Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural UniversityWuhan, China.
authors.forename: Jiasen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cheng
keywords: Sclerotinia sclerotiorum; microbial opsin; sclerotial development; stress response; virulence