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Suarez-Fernandez M, Álvarez-Aragón R, Pastor-Mediavilla A, Maestre-Guillén A, del Olmo I, De Francesco A, Meile L, Sánchez-Vallet A. Sas3-mediated histone acetylation regulates effector gene activation in a fungal plant pathogen. mBio 2023; 14:e0138623. [PMID: 37642412 PMCID: PMC10653901 DOI: 10.1128/mbio.01386-23] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/02/2023] [Accepted: 07/04/2023] [Indexed: 08/31/2023] Open
Abstract
IMPORTANCE Pathogen infections require the production of effectors that enable host colonization. Effectors have diverse functions and are only expressed at certain stages of the infection cycle. Thus, effector genes are tightly regulated by several mechanisms, including chromatin remodeling. Here, we investigate the role of histone acetylation in effector gene activation in the fungal wheat pathogen Zymoseptoria tritici. We demonstrate that lysine acetyltransferases (KATs) are essential for the spatiotemporal regulation of effector genes. We show that the KAT Sas3 is involved in leaf symptom development and pycnidia formation. Importantly, our results indicate that Sas3 controls histone acetylation of effector loci and is a regulator of effector gene activation during stomatal penetration. Overall, our work demonstrates the key role of histone acetylation in regulating gene expression associated with plant infection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marta Suarez-Fernandez
- Centro de Biotecnología y Genómica de Plantas (CBGP, UPM-INIA), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM)—Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA)/Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Madrid, Spain
- Department of Marine Sciences and Applied Biology, University of Alicante, Alicante, Spain
| | - Rocio Álvarez-Aragón
- Centro de Biotecnología y Genómica de Plantas (CBGP, UPM-INIA), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM)—Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA)/Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Madrid, Spain
| | - Ana Pastor-Mediavilla
- Centro de Biotecnología y Genómica de Plantas (CBGP, UPM-INIA), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM)—Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA)/Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Madrid, Spain
| | - Alejandro Maestre-Guillén
- Centro de Biotecnología y Genómica de Plantas (CBGP, UPM-INIA), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM)—Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA)/Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Madrid, Spain
| | - Ivan del Olmo
- Centro de Biotecnología y Genómica de Plantas (CBGP, UPM-INIA), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM)—Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA)/Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Madrid, Spain
| | - Agustina De Francesco
- Centro de Biotecnología y Genómica de Plantas (CBGP, UPM-INIA), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM)—Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA)/Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Madrid, Spain
| | - Lukas Meile
- Centro de Biotecnología y Genómica de Plantas (CBGP, UPM-INIA), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM)—Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA)/Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Madrid, Spain
| | - Andrea Sánchez-Vallet
- Centro de Biotecnología y Genómica de Plantas (CBGP, UPM-INIA), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM)—Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA)/Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Madrid, Spain
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Forte FP, Schmid J, Dijkwel PP, Nagy I, Hume DE, Johnson RD, Simpson WR, Monk SM, Zhang N, Sehrish T, Asp T. Fungal Endophyte Colonization Patterns Alter Over Time in the Novel Association Between Lolium perenne and Epichloë Endophyte AR37. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2020; 11:570026. [PMID: 33193501 PMCID: PMC7658011 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2020.570026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/05/2020] [Accepted: 09/22/2020] [Indexed: 05/16/2023]
Abstract
Infection of the pasture grass Lolium perenne with the seed-transmitted fungal endophyte Epichloë festucae enhances its resilience to biotic and abiotic stress. Agricultural benefits of endophyte infection can be increased by generating novel symbiotic associations through inoculating L. perenne with selected Epichloë strains. Natural symbioses have coevolved over long periods. Thus, artificial symbioses will probably not have static properties, but symbionts will coadapt over time improving the fitness of the association. Here we report for the first time on temporal changes in a novel association of Epichloë strain AR37 and the L. perenne cultivar Grasslands Samson. Over nine generations, a seed maintenance program had increased the endophyte seed transmission rates to > 95% (from an initial 76%). We observed an approximately fivefold decline in endophyte biomass concentration in vegetative tissues over time (between generations 2 and 9). This indicates strong selection pressure toward reducing endophyte-related fitness costs by reducing endophyte biomass, without compromising the frequency of endophyte transmission to seed. We observed no obvious changes in tillering and only minor transcriptomic changes in infected plants over time. Functional analysis of 40 plant genes, showing continuously decreasing expression over time, suggests that adaptation of host metabolism and defense mechanisms are important for increasing the fitness of this association, and possibly fitness of such symbioses in general. Our results indicate that fitness of novel associations is likely to improve over time and that monitoring changes in novel associations can assist in identifying key features of endophyte-mediated enhancement of host fitness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Flavia Pilar Forte
- Center for Quantitative Genetics and Genomics, Aarhus University, Slagelse, Denmark
- School of Fundamental Sciences, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
- *Correspondence: Flavia Pilar Forte,
| | - Jan Schmid
- School of Fundamental Sciences, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
- Ferguson Street Laboratories, Palmerston North, New Zealand
| | - Paul P. Dijkwel
- School of Fundamental Sciences, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
| | - Istvan Nagy
- Center for Quantitative Genetics and Genomics, Aarhus University, Slagelse, Denmark
| | - David E. Hume
- AgResearch, Grasslands Research Centre, Palmerston North, New Zealand
| | | | - Wayne R. Simpson
- AgResearch, Grasslands Research Centre, Palmerston North, New Zealand
| | | | - Ningxin Zhang
- School of Fundamental Sciences, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
| | - Tina Sehrish
- School of Fundamental Sciences, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
| | - Torben Asp
- Center for Quantitative Genetics and Genomics, Aarhus University, Slagelse, Denmark
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Schmid J, Day R, Zhang N, Dupont PY, Cox MP, Schardl CL, Minards N, Truglio M, Moore N, Harris DR, Zhou Y. Host Tissue Environment Directs Activities of an Epichloë Endophyte, While It Induces Systemic Hormone and Defense Responses in Its Native Perennial Ryegrass Host. MOLECULAR PLANT-MICROBE INTERACTIONS : MPMI 2017; 30:138-149. [PMID: 28027026 DOI: 10.1094/mpmi-10-16-0215-r] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/24/2023]
Abstract
Increased resilience of pasture grasses mediated by fungal Epichloë endophytes is crucial to pastoral industries. The underlying mechanisms are only partially understood and likely involve very different activities of the endophyte in different plant tissues and responses of the plant to these. We analyzed the transcriptomes of Epichloë festucae and its host, Lolium perenne, in host tissues of different function and developmental stages. The endophyte contributed approximately 10× more to the transcriptomes than to the biomass of infected tissues. Proliferating mycelium in growing host tissues highly expressed genes involved in hyphal growth. Nonproliferating mycelium in mature plant tissues, transcriptionally equally active, highly expressed genes involved in synthesizing antiherbivore compounds. Transcripts from the latter accounted for 4% of fungal transcripts. Endophyte infection systemically but moderately increased transcription of L. perenne genes with roles in hormone biosynthesis and perception as well as stress and pathogen resistance while reducing expression of genes involved in photosynthesis. There was a good correlation between transcriptome-based observations and physiological observations. Our data indicate that the fitness-enhancing effects of the endophyte are based both on its biosynthetic activities, predominantly in mature host tissues, and also on systemic alteration of the host's hormonal responses and induction of stress response genes. [Formula: see text] Copyright © 2017 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license .
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Affiliation(s)
- Jan Schmid
- 1 Institute of Fundamental Sciences, Massey University, Palmerston North 4410, New Zealand
| | - Robert Day
- 2 School of Medical Sciences, University of Otago, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand
| | - Ningxin Zhang
- 1 Institute of Fundamental Sciences, Massey University, Palmerston North 4410, New Zealand
| | - Pierre-Yves Dupont
- 1 Institute of Fundamental Sciences, Massey University, Palmerston North 4410, New Zealand
| | - Murray P Cox
- 1 Institute of Fundamental Sciences, Massey University, Palmerston North 4410, New Zealand
| | - Christopher L Schardl
- 3 Department of Plant Pathology, University of Kentucky, Lexington 40546-0312, U.S.A
| | - Niki Minards
- 4 Manawatu Microscopy and Imaging Centre, Palmerston North 4410, New Zealand
| | - Mauro Truglio
- 1 Institute of Fundamental Sciences, Massey University, Palmerston North 4410, New Zealand
| | - Neil Moore
- 5 Computer Science Department, University of Kentucky; and
| | - Daniel R Harris
- 6 Institute for Pharmaceutical Outcomes & Policy, University of Kentucky
| | - Yanfei Zhou
- 1 Institute of Fundamental Sciences, Massey University, Palmerston North 4410, New Zealand
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Penny D. Cooperation and selfishness both occur during molecular evolution. Biol Direct 2014; 10:26. [PMID: 25486885 PMCID: PMC4266915 DOI: 10.1186/s13062-014-0026-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/22/2014] [Accepted: 11/14/2014] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Perhaps the 'selfish' aspect of evolution has been over-emphasised, and organisms considered as basically selfish. However, at the macromolecular level of genes and proteins the cooperative aspect of evolution is more obvious and balances this self-centred aspect. Thousands of proteins must function together in an integrated manner to use and to produce the many molecules necessary for a functioning cell. The macromolecules have no idea whether they are functioning cooperatively or competitively with other genes and gene products (such as proteins). The cell is a giant cooperative system of thousands of genes/proteins that function together, even if it has to simultaneously resist 'parasites'. There are extensive examples of cooperative behavior among genes and proteins in both functioning cells and in the origin of life, so this cooperative nature, along with selfishness, must be considered part of normal evolution. The principles also apply to very large numbers of examples of 'positive interactions' between organisms, including both eukaryotes and akaryotes (prokaryotes). This does not negate in any way the 'selfishness' of genes - but macromolecules have no idea when they are helping, or hindering, other groups of macromolecules. We need to assert more strongly that genes, and gene products, function together as a cooperative unit.
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Affiliation(s)
- David Penny
- Institute of Fundamental Sciences, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
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Zhang N, Zhang S, Borchert S, Richardson K, Schmid J. High levels of a fungal superoxide dismutase and increased concentration of a PR-10 plant protein in associations between the endophytic fungus Neotyphodium lolii and ryegrass. MOLECULAR PLANT-MICROBE INTERACTIONS : MPMI 2011; 24:984-92. [PMID: 21520999 DOI: 10.1094/mpmi-02-11-0028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/11/2023]
Abstract
Neotyphodium lolii is a fungal endosymbiont of the ryegrass Lolium perenne. Its growth is tightly controlled and synchronized with that of the plant. How the symbionts communicate is largely unknown but failure of the endophyte to elicit a defense response is considered crucial for successful symbiosis. In silver-stained two-dimensional gels of protein extracts from endophyte-infected ryegrass, a fungal Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase was detectable, even though the fungus accounts for only <¹/500 of the biomass, indicating that it is an abundant fungal protein and that the fungus needs protection against reactive oxygen species. The plant increased levels of a pathogenesis-related class 10 (PR-10) protein; when equal amounts of protein from infected and uninfected plants were loaded, PR-10 was only detectable in extracts from infected plants. Presence of the endophyte did not lead to a significant increase in PR10 transcript levels. In protein extracts from a symbiosis containing an N. lolii variant with an abnormal in planta growth pattern, the fungal Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase but not PR-10 protein was detectable. The correlation between increased PR-10 levels and presence of a normally growing endophyte is suggestive of a role of a very limited host defense in the interaction between grass and endophyte.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ningxin Zhang
- Institute for Molecular BioSciences, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
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Persson M, Staal J, Oide S, Dixelius C. Layers of defense responses to Leptosphaeria maculans below the RLM1- and camalexin-dependent resistances. THE NEW PHYTOLOGIST 2009; 182:470-482. [PMID: 19220763 DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-8137.2009.02763.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/27/2023]
Abstract
Plants have evolved different defense components to counteract pathogen attacks. The resistance locus resistance to Leptosphaeria maculans 1 (RLM1) is a key factor for Arabidopsis thaliana resistance to L. maculans. The present work aimed to reveal downstream defense responses regulated by RLM1. Quantitative assessment of fungal colonization in the host was carried out using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and GUS expression analyses, to further characterize RLM1 resistance and the role of salicylic acid (SA), jasmonic acid (JA), and ethylene (ET) in disease development. Additional assessments of A. thaliana mutants were performed to expand our understanding of this pathosystem. Resistance responses such as lignification and the formation of vascular plugs were found to occur in an RLM1-dependent manner, in contrast to the RLM1-independent increase in reactive oxygen species at the stomata and hydathodes. Analyses of mutants defective in hormone signaling in the camalexin-free rlm1(Ler)pad3 background revealed a significant influence of JA and ET on symptom development and pathogen colonization. The overall results indicate that the defense responses of primary importance induced by RLM1 are all associated with physical barriers, and that responses of secondary importance involve complex cross-talk among SA, JA and ET. Our observations further suggest that ET positively affects fungal colonization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mattias Persson
- Department of Plant Biology and Forest Genetics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, PO Box 7080, 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Jens Staal
- Department of Molecular Biomedical Research, Unit for Molecular Signal Transduction in Inflammation, VIB, Technologiepark 927, B-9052 Ghent (Zwijnaarde), Belgium
- Department of Molecular Biology, Ghent University, Technologiepark 927, B-9052 Ghent (Zwijnaarde), Belgium
| | - Shinichi Oide
- Department of Plant Biology and Forest Genetics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, PO Box 7080, 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Christina Dixelius
- Department of Plant Biology and Forest Genetics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, PO Box 7080, 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden
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