Project description:Bacterial pathogen Burkholderia glumae and fungal pathogen Fusarium graminearum cause similar disease symptoms and are often co-isolated from rice heads, inferring interactions between the two pathogens. F. graminearum is resistant to the bacterial toxin toxoflavin, a strong anti-microbial activity, produced by B. glumae. We isolated a toxoflavin-sensitive mutant from transcription factor deletion mutant library of F. graminearum. To understand genome-wide transcriptional profiling, we performed RNA-seq analyses of F. graminearum wild-type strain GZ03639 and toxoflavin-sensitive mutant strain, ∆GzZC190, under toxoflavin condition.
Project description:Fusarium head blight (FHB) is a major disease of cereal crops caused by the fungus Fusarium graminearum (Fg). FHB affects the flowering heads (or spikes) and developing seeds. This study compare the gene expression profile in wheat spikelets (spk 2) inoculated with either water (mock treatment) or a pathogenic strain of Fusarium graminearum (WT); spikelets 2 were inoculated 24 hrs after a neighbour spikelet (spk 0) was treated with either water or F. graminerum mutant strain Tri6Δ or NoxABΔ. Spikelets 2 were sampled 8 and 24 hrs after the second treatment.
Project description:The plant pathogenic fungus Fusarium graminearum (Fgr) creates economic and health risks in cereals agriculture. Fgr causes head blight (or scab) of wheat and stalk rot of corn, reducing yield, degrading grain quality and polluting downstream food products with mycotoxins. Fungal plant pathogens must secrete proteases to access nutrition and to breakdown the structural protein component of the plant cell wall. Research into the proteolytic activity of Fgr is hindered by the complex nature of the suite of proteases secreted. We used a systems biology approach comprising genome analysis, transcriptomics and label-free quantitative proteomics to characterise the peptidases deployed by Fgr during growth. A combined analysis of published microarray transcriptome datasets revealed seven transcriptional groupings of peptidases based on in vitro growth, in planta growth, and sporulation behaviours. An orbitrap MS/MS proteomics technique defined the extracellular proteases secreted by Fusarium graminearum.
Project description:Fusarium graminearum is a major pathogen of Fusarium head blight in wheat, barley, and rice, as well as ear rot and stalk rot in maize. Regulatory Factor X (RFX) transcription factors are well-conserved in animals and fungi, but their functions are diverse, ranging from DNA-damage response to ciliary gene regulation. We investigated the role of the sole RFX transcription factor, RFX1, in F. graminearum. Deletion of rfx1 resulted in multiple defects in hyphal growth, conidiation, virulence, and sexual development. Deletion mutants of rfx1 were more sensitive to various types of DNA damage than the wild-type strain. Septum formation was inhibited and micronuclei were produced in the rfx1 deletion mutants. The results of the neutral comet assay demonstrated that disruption of rfx1 function caused spontaneous DNA double-strand breaks. To understand regulatory mechanisms of rfx1 in F. graminearum, we obtained and analyzed genome-wide transcription profiles generated from the RNA-sequencing data of the wild-type and Δrfx1 strains. RNA-sequencing-based transcriptomic analysis revealed that RFX1 suppressed the expression of many genes, including genes for the repair of DNA damage.
