Project description:Botrytis cinerea, the causal agent of gray mold and noble rot, is a phytopathogenic fungus with a scientific and economic relevance due to its effects in agriculture. This fungus employs various molecular tools, such as enzymes and secondary metabolites, to infect and colonize plant tissues. Pathogenicity and virulence factors are identified, highlighting their role in the infectious cycle. Our approach presents the description of a new infection mechanism in the phytopathogenic fungus Botrytis cinerea, based on the production of bioactive peptides. Those peptides were isolated from cultures with glucose (constitutive stage) and tomato (virulence inductor), and showed significant effects on virulence, suggesting a crucial function in the fungus-plant interaction. Biochemical and genetic analysis methods were employed to determine the expression of genes involved in peptide production, highlighting the potential for de novo peptide synthesis and degradation of parental proteins. The results indicate that B. cinerea has significant biotechnological potential, as it can generate peptides of interest for industrial and pharmaceutical applications. This work is pioneering in describing the peptidome of a phytopathogenic fungus and suggests new strategies for controlling microbial infections.
Project description:In this study, we showed that three bacteria were able to inhibit the mycelial growth of the phytopathogenic fungus Thielaviopsis ethacetica, by the emission of microbial volatile organic compounds (mVOCs). Aiming to understand the molecular mechanisms of these interactions, we evaluated the transcriptomic response of T. ethacetica to the mVOCs produced by one of these bacterial isolates.
Project description:Communication between interacting organisms via bioactive molecules is widespread in nature and plays key roles in diverse biological processes. Small RNAs (sRNAs) can travel between host plants and filamentous pathogens to trigger trans-kingdom RNA interference (RNAi) in recipient cells and modulate plant defense and pathogen virulence. However, how trans-kingdom RNAi is regulated has rarely been reported. Here, we show that the secretory protein VdSSR1 (secretory silencing repressor 1) from Verticillium dahliae, a soil-borne phytopathogenic fungus that causes wilt diseases in a wide range of plant hosts, is required for fungal virulence in plants through the suppression of trans-kingdom RNAi.
Project description:Amycolatopsis sp. BX17 is an actinobacterium isolated from milpa soils that antagonizes the phytopathogenic fungus Fusarium graminearum. Metabolites secreted by the actinobacterium cultured in medium without glucose inhibited 100% the mycelial growth of F. graminearum RH1, while in medium supplemented with 20 g/L of glucose inhibition was 65%. With the aim of studying how the metabolism of strain BX17 is modulated by glucose, as the main carbon source, media with 0 and 20 g/L glucose were selected to analyze the intracellular proteins by quantitative label-free proteomic analysis.