Project description:The bacterial pathogen Erwinia amylovora is the causal agent of fire blight, an economically significant disease of apple and pear. Disease initiation by E. amylovora requires the translocation of effector proteins into host cells by the hypersensitive response and pathogenicity (hrp) type III secretion system (T3SS). The alternate sigma factor HrpL positively regulates the transcription of structural and translocated components of the T3SS via hrp promoter elements. To characterize genome-wide hrpL-dependent gene expression in E. amylovora Ea1189, wild-type and Ea1189hrpL strains were cultured in hrp-inducing minimal medium, and total RNA was compared using a custom microarray designed to represent the annotated genes of E. amylovora ATCC 49946. Results revealed 24 genes differentially-regulated in Ea1189hrpL compared to Ea1189 with fold-change expression ratios greater than 1.5; of these, the expression of 19 genes was up-regulated while five genes exhibited negative regulation. To expand our understanding of the HrpL regulon and to elucidate direct versus indirect hrpL-mediated effects on gene expression, the genome of E. amylovora ATCC 49946 was examined in silico using a hidden Markov model assembled from known Erwinia spp. hrp promoters. This technique identified 21 putative type III novel hrp promoters; of these, 8+ were validated with quantitative polymerase chain reaction based on expression analyses. In total, hrpL-regulated genes encode all known components of the hrp T3SS and 5 putative type III effectors. Eight genes displayed apparent indirect hrpL regulation suggesting that the hrpL regulon is connected to downstream signaling networks. Construction of deletion mutants of three novel hrpL-regulated genes has resulted in the identification of additional virulence factors in E. amylovora as well as mutants displaying abnormal motility and biofilm phenotypes.
Project description:This RNA-seq experiment captures expression data from challenged and mock-inoculated apple flowers (Malus domestica Golden Delicious) to assess the susceptible response of the primary infection court (48h) of apple by the fire blight pathogen Erwinia amylovora (CFBP 1430).
Project description:<p>Cisgenesis, the genetic modification of a plant with genes from a sexually compatible plant, was used to confer fire blight resistance to the cultivar 'Gala Galaxy' by amendment of the resistance gene FB_MR5, resulting in the line C44.4146. To verify whether cisgenesis changed other tree-, flower-, or fruit-related traits, a 5-year field trial was conducted with trees of C44.4.146 and multiple control cultivars, including members of the 'Gala' sports group. None of the 44 investigated tree-, flower-, or fruit-related traits significantly differed between C44.4.146 and at least one of the control cultivars in all observation years. However, fruits of C44.4.146 and its wild-type 'Gala Galaxy' from tissue culture were paler in color than fruits of 'Gala Galaxy' that had not undergone tissue culture. The abundance of no metabolite in the fruit flesh and peel of C44.4.146 was consistently significantly different from the control genotypes in both observation years. Finally, the disease resistance of C44.4.146 was confirmed also when the fire blight pathogen was inoculated through the flowers. We conclude that the use of cisgenesis to confer fire blight resistance to 'Gala Galaxy' in C44.4.146 did not have unintended effects and that the in vitro establishment of 'Gala Galaxy' had a greater effect on C44.4.146 properties than its cisgenic generation.</p>
Project description:Microarray analysis was used to identify genes that were controlled by AmyR in minimal and on immature pear fruits. Consistent with amylovoran production, an inverse correlation was observed between amyR expression and the expression level of amylovoran biosynthetic genes in liquid media. Interestingly, over-expression of AmyR suppressed the expression of type III secretion system genes including hrpA, hrpN and dspEF after pear fruit infection. Consistent with levan production and swarming motility, levasucrase and flagellar genes were both down-regulated both in the amyR mutant and over-expression strains in liquid media. Together, our results suggest that AmyR plays an important role in regulating bacterial exopolysaccharide production and virulence in E. amylovora.
Project description:miRNAs are key players in multiple biological processes, therefore analysis and characterization of these small regulatory RNAs is a critical step towards better understanding of animal and plant biology. In apple (Malus domestica) two hundred microRNAs are known, which most probably represents only a fraction of miRNAome diversity. As a result, more effort is required to better annotate miRNAs and their functions in this economically important species. We performed deep sequencing of twelve small RNA libraries obtained for fire blight resistant and fire blight sensitive trees. In the sequencing results we identified 116 novel microRNAs and confirmed a majority of previously reported apple miRNAs. We then experimentally verified selected candidates with RT-PCR and stem-loop qPCR and performed differential expression analysis. Finally, we identified and characterized putative targets of all known apple miRNAs. In this study we considerably expand the apple miRNAome by identifying and characterizing dozens of novel microRNAs. Moreover, our data suggests that apple microRNAs might be considered as regulators and markers of fire blight resistance. Actively-growing shoot tip tissue samples were collected from twelve apple trees, which includes three biological replicates of each following scion-rootstock combinations: B.9, G.30, M.111 and M.27.
Project description:We conducted genome-wide microarray analyses to determine the regulons of RcsB and RcsC in liquid medium and, for the first time, on immature pear fruit. Our array analyses identified a total of 648 genes differentially regulated by the RcsCB in vitro and in vivo. Consistent with our previous findings, RcsB acts as a positive regulator in both conditions, while RcsC positively controls amylovoran biosynthetic gene expression in vivo, but negatively in vitro. Besides amylovoran biosynthesis and regulatory genes, cell wall and cell envelope (membrane) as well as regulatory genes were the major components of the RcsBC regulon, including many novel genes. In addition, we have also demonstrated that transcripts of rcsA, rcsC and rcsD genes, but not rcsB gene, were up-regulated when grown in minimal medium or after infection of pear fruits compared to LB medium. Furthermore, a hidden Markov model (HMM) has predicted 60 genes with candidate RcsB binding site in the intergenic regions of the E. amylovora ATCC 49946 genome and 18 (28) of them were identified in the microarray assay. Based on our findings, a working model has been proposed to illustrate how the Rcs phosphorelay system regulates virulence gene expression in E. amylovora.
Project description:miRNAs are key players in multiple biological processes, therefore analysis and characterization of these small regulatory RNAs is a critical step towards better understanding of animal and plant biology. In apple (Malus domestica) two hundred microRNAs are known, which most probably represents only a fraction of miRNAome diversity. As a result, more effort is required to better annotate miRNAs and their functions in this economically important species. We performed deep sequencing of twelve small RNA libraries obtained for fire blight resistant and fire blight sensitive trees. In the sequencing results we identified 116 novel microRNAs and confirmed a majority of previously reported apple miRNAs. We then experimentally verified selected candidates with RT-PCR and stem-loop qPCR and performed differential expression analysis. Finally, we identified and characterized putative targets of all known apple miRNAs. In this study we considerably expand the apple miRNAome by identifying and characterizing dozens of novel microRNAs. Moreover, our data suggests that apple microRNAs might be considered as regulators and markers of fire blight resistance.
Project description:Microarray analysis was used to identify genes that were controlled by AmyR in minimal and on immature pear fruits. Consistent with amylovoran production, an inverse correlation was observed between amyR expression and the expression level of amylovoran biosynthetic genes in liquid media. Interestingly, over-expression of AmyR suppressed the expression of type III secretion system genes including hrpA, hrpN and dspEF after pear fruit infection. Consistent with levan production and swarming motility, levasucrase and flagellar genes were both down-regulated both in the amyR mutant and over-expression strains in liquid media. Together, our results suggest that AmyR plays an important role in regulating bacterial exopolysaccharide production and virulence in E. amylovora. A total of 14 samples were analyzed in two conditions: For the in vitro condition (MBMA medium + 1% sorbitol), Erwinia amylovora wild type strain (2 replicates); E. amylovora amyR mutant strain (3 replicates); E. amylovora amyR over-expression strain (3 replicates); For the in vivo condition (on wounded immature pear fruits), Erwinia amylovora wild type strain (2 replicates); E. amylovora amyR mutant strain (2 replicates); E. amylovora amyR over-expression strain (2 replicates).