title: Transcriptome analysis of Sporisorium scitamineum reveals critical environmental signals for fungal sexual mating and filamentous growth.
abstract: Sporisorium scitamineum causes the sugarcane smut disease, one of the most serious constraints to global sugarcane production. S. scitamineum possesses a sexual mating system composed of two mating-type loci, a and b locus. We previously identified and deleted the b locus in S. scitamineum, and found that the resultant SsΔMAT-1b mutant was defective in mating and pathogenicity.
  
  
  
  To further understand the function of b-mating locus, we carried out transcriptome analysis by comparing the transcripts of the mutant strain SsΔMAT-1b, from which the SsbE1 and SsbW1 homeodomain transcription factors have previously been deleted, with those from the wild-type MAT-1 strain. Also the transcripts from SsΔMAT-1b X MAT-2 were compared with those from wild-type MAT-1 X MAT-2 mating. A total of 209 genes were up-regulated (p < 0.05) in the SsΔMAT-1b mutant, compared to the wild-type MAT-1 strain, while 148 genes down-regulated (p < 0.05). In the mixture, 120 genes were up-regulated (p < 0.05) in SsΔMAT-1b X MAT-2, which failed to mate, compared to the wild-type MAT-1 X MAT-2 mating, and 271 genes down-regulated (p < 0.05). By comparing the up- and down-regulated genes in these two sets, it was found that 15 up-regulated and 37 down-regulated genes were common in non-mating haploid and mating mixture, which indeed could be genes regulated by b-locus. Furthermore, GO and KEGG enrichment analysis suggested that carbon metabolism pathway and stress response mediated by Hog1 MAPK signaling pathway were altered in the non-mating sets.
  
  
  
  Experimental validation results indicate that the bE/bW heterodimeric transcriptional factor, encoded by the b-locus, could regulate S. scitamineum sexual mating and/or filamentous growth via modulating glucose metabolism and Hog1-mediating oxidative response.
authors.affiliation: Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Microbial Signals and Disease Control, College of Agriculture, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, Peoples' Republic of China.|Integrative Microbiology Research Centre, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, Peoples' Republic of China.
authors.forename: Meixin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: Guangdong Innovative and Entepreneurial Research Team of Sociomicrobiology Basic Science and Frontier Technology, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, Peoples' Republic of China.|Integrative Microbiology Research Centre, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, Peoples' Republic of China.
authors.forename: Weijun
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.affiliation: Guangdong Innovative and Entepreneurial Research Team of Sociomicrobiology Basic Science and Frontier Technology, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, Peoples' Republic of China.|Integrative Microbiology Research Centre, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, Peoples' Republic of China.
authors.forename: Enping
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.affiliation: Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Microbial Signals and Disease Control, College of Agriculture, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, Peoples' Republic of China.|Integrative Microbiology Research Centre, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, Peoples' Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yi Zhen
authors.initials: YZ
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.affiliation: Guangdong Innovative and Entepreneurial Research Team of Sociomicrobiology Basic Science and Frontier Technology, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, Peoples' Republic of China.|Integrative Microbiology Research Centre, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, Peoples' Republic of China.
authors.forename: Changqing
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Microbial Signals and Disease Control, College of Agriculture, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, Peoples' Republic of China. zdjiang@scau.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Zide
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Microbial Signals and Disease Control, College of Agriculture, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, Peoples' Republic of China. lhzhang01@scau.edu.cn.|Integrative Microbiology Research Centre, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, Peoples' Republic of China. lhzhang01@scau.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Lian-Hui
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D001487:Basidiomycota / Q000502:physiology*; D050260:Carbohydrate Metabolism / Q000235:genetics; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods; D030561:Databases, Nucleic Acid; D004777:Environment; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015966:Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal; D049770:Genes, Mating Type, Fungal; D020935:MAP Kinase Signaling System; D008954:Models, Biological; D058977:Molecular Sequence Annotation; D012100:Reproduction, Asexual / Q000235:genetics*; D059467:Transcriptome
keywords: Glucose; Hog1; Mating; Sugarcane smut; bE/bW heterodimeric transcriptional factor