Retrotransposons as pathogenicity factors of the plant pathogenic fungus Botrytis cinerea.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Retrotransposons are genetic elements inducing mutations in all domains of life. Despite their detrimental effect, retrotransposons can become temporarily active during epigenetic reprogramming and cellular stress response, which may accelerate host genome evolution. In fungal pathogens, a positive role has been attributed to retrotransposons when shaping genome architecture and expression of genes encoding pathogenicity factors; thus, retrotransposons are known to influence pathogenicity.

Results

We uncover a hitherto unknown role of fungal retrotransposons as being pathogenicity factors, themselves. The aggressive fungal plant pathogen, Botrytis cinerea, is known to deliver some long-terminal repeat (LTR) deriving regulatory trans-species small RNAs (BcsRNAs) in

SUBMITTER: Porquier A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8365987 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature