Exogenous dsRNA triggers sequence-specific RNAi and fungal stress responses to control Magnaporthe oryzae in Brachypodium distachyon.

ABSTRACT: In vertebrates and plants, dsRNA plays crucial roles as PAMP and as a mediator of RNAi. How higher fungi respond to dsRNA is not known. We demonstrate that Magnaporthe oryzae (Mo), a globally significant crop pathogen, internalizes dsRNA across a broad size range of 21 to about 3000 bp. Incubation of fungal conidia with 10 ng/µL dsRNA, regardless of size or sequence, induced aberrant germ tube elongation, revealing a strong sequence-unspecific effect of dsRNA in this fungus. Accordingly, the synthetic dsRNA analogue poly(I:C) and dsRNA of various sizes and sequences elicited canonical fungal stress pathways, including nuclear accumulation of the stress marker mitogen-activated protein kinase Hog1p and production of ROS. Leaf application of dsRNA to the cereal model species Brachypodium dis

SUBMITTER: Zheng Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11762700 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature