1
|
Marcianò D, Toffolatti SL. Methods for Fungicide Efficacy Screenings: Multiwell Testing Procedures for the Oomycetes Phytophthora infestans and Pythium ultimum. Microorganisms 2023; 11:350. [PMID: 36838315 PMCID: PMC9959339 DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms11020350] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/05/2022] [Revised: 01/26/2023] [Accepted: 01/28/2023] [Indexed: 02/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Oomycetes-borne diseases represent a serious problem for agriculture sustainability due to the high use of chemical products employed for their control. In recent years, increasing concerns on side effects associated with fungicide utilization have led to the reduction of the permissible modes of action, with the remaining ones continuously threatened by the increase of resistant strains in the pathogen populations. In this context, it is mandatory to develop new generation fungicides characterized by high specificity towards the target species and low environmental impact to guarantee the sustainability, productivity, and quality of food production. Fungicide discovery is a lengthy and costly process, and despite these urgent needs, poor description and formalization of high-throughput methodologies for screening the efficacy of active compounds are commonly reported for these kinds of organisms. In this study, a comprehensive picture of two high-throughput practices for efficient fungicide screening against plant-pathogenic oomycetes has been provided. Different protocols using multiwell plates were validated on approved crop protection products using Phytophthora infestans and Pythium ultimum as the model species. In addition, detailed statistical inputs useful for the analysis of data related to the efficacy of screenings are included.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Silvia Laura Toffolatti
- Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie ed Ambientali, Università degli Studi di Milano, 20133 Milan, Italy
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Sun Y, Tayagui A, Sale S, Sarkar D, Nock V, Garrill A. Platforms for High-Throughput Screening and Force Measurements on Fungi and Oomycetes. MICROMACHINES 2021; 12:mi12060639. [PMID: 34070887 PMCID: PMC8227076 DOI: 10.3390/mi12060639] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/01/2021] [Revised: 05/27/2021] [Accepted: 05/28/2021] [Indexed: 01/19/2023]
Abstract
Pathogenic fungi and oomycetes give rise to a significant number of animal and plant diseases. While the spread of these pathogenic microorganisms is increasing globally, emerging resistance to antifungal drugs is making associated diseases more difficult to treat. High-throughput screening (HTS) and new developments in lab-on-a-chip (LOC) platforms promise to aid the discovery of urgently required new control strategies and anti-fungal/oomycete drugs. In this review, we summarize existing HTS and emergent LOC approaches in the context of infection strategies and invasive growth exhibited by these microorganisms. To aid this, we introduce key biological aspects and review existing HTS platforms based on both conventional and LOC techniques. We then provide an in-depth discussion of more specialized LOC platforms for force measurements on hyphae and to study electro- and chemotaxis in spores, approaches which have the potential to aid the discovery of alternative drug targets on future HTS platforms. Finally, we conclude with a brief discussion of the technical developments required to improve the uptake of these platforms into the general laboratory environment.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Yiling Sun
- Biomolecular Interaction Centre, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Canterbury, Christchurch 8041, New Zealand; (Y.S.); (A.T.); (S.S.); (D.S.)
- The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, Wellington 6140, New Zealand
| | - Ayelen Tayagui
- Biomolecular Interaction Centre, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Canterbury, Christchurch 8041, New Zealand; (Y.S.); (A.T.); (S.S.); (D.S.)
- The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, Wellington 6140, New Zealand
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury, Christchurch 8041, New Zealand
| | - Sarah Sale
- Biomolecular Interaction Centre, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Canterbury, Christchurch 8041, New Zealand; (Y.S.); (A.T.); (S.S.); (D.S.)
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury, Christchurch 8041, New Zealand
| | - Debolina Sarkar
- Biomolecular Interaction Centre, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Canterbury, Christchurch 8041, New Zealand; (Y.S.); (A.T.); (S.S.); (D.S.)
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury, Christchurch 8041, New Zealand
| | - Volker Nock
- Biomolecular Interaction Centre, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Canterbury, Christchurch 8041, New Zealand; (Y.S.); (A.T.); (S.S.); (D.S.)
- The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, Wellington 6140, New Zealand
- Correspondence: (V.N.); (A.G.)
| | - Ashley Garrill
- Biomolecular Interaction Centre, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Canterbury, Christchurch 8041, New Zealand; (Y.S.); (A.T.); (S.S.); (D.S.)
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury, Christchurch 8041, New Zealand
- Correspondence: (V.N.); (A.G.)
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Xu Z, Wang Y, Chen Y, Spalding MH, Dong L. Microfluidic chip for automated screening of carbon dioxide conditions for microalgal cell growth. BIOMICROFLUIDICS 2017; 11:064104. [PMID: 29204245 PMCID: PMC5699919 DOI: 10.1063/1.5012508] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/09/2017] [Accepted: 11/06/2017] [Indexed: 05/27/2023]
Abstract
This paper reports on a microfluidic device capable of screening carbon dioxide (CO2) conditions for microalgal cell growth. The device mainly consists of a microfluidic cell culture (MCC) unit, a gas concentration gradient generator (CGG), and an in-line cell growth optical measurement unit. The MCC unit is structured with multiple aqueous-filled cell culture channels at the top layer, multiple CO2 flow channels at the bottom layer, and a commercial hydrophobic gas semipermeable membrane sandwiched between the two channel layers. The CGG unit provides different CO2 concentrations to support photosynthesis of microalgae in the culture channels. The integration of the commercial gas semipermeable membrane into the cell culture device allows rapid mass transport and uniform distribution of CO2 inside the culture medium without using conventional agitation-assisted convection methods, because the diffusion of CO2 from the gas flow channels to the culture channels is fast over a small length scale. In addition, automated in-line monitoring of microalgal cell growth is realized via the optical measurement unit that is able to detect changes in the light intensity transmitted through the cell culture in the culture channels. The microfluidic device also allows a simple grayscale analysis method to quantify the cell growth. The utility of the system is validated by growing Chlamydomonas reinhardtii cells under different low or very-low CO2 levels below the nominal ambient CO2 concentration.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Zhen Xu
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA
| | - Yingjun Wang
- Department of Genetics, Development, and Cell Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA
| | - Yuncong Chen
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA
| | - Martin H Spalding
- Department of Genetics, Development, and Cell Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA
| | - Liang Dong
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Marshall J, Qiao X, Baumbach J, Xie J, Dong L, Bhattacharyya MK. Microfluidic device enabled quantitative time-lapse microscopic-photography for phenotyping vegetative and reproductive phases in Fusarium virguliforme, which is pathogenic to soybean. Sci Rep 2017; 7:44365. [PMID: 28295054 PMCID: PMC5353701 DOI: 10.1038/srep44365] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/06/2016] [Accepted: 02/02/2017] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
Time-lapse microscopic-photography allows in-depth phenotyping of microorganisms. Here we report development of such a system using a microfluidic device, generated from polydimethylsiloxane and glass slide, placed on a motorized stage of a microscope for conducting time-lapse microphotography of multiple observations in 20 channels simultaneously. We have demonstrated the utility of the device in studying growth, germination and sporulation in Fusarium virguliforme that causes sudden death syndrome in soybean. To measure the growth differences, we developed a polyamine oxidase fvpo1 mutant in this fungus that fails to grow in minimal medium containing polyamines as the sole nitrogen source. Using this system, we demonstrated that the conidiospores of the pathogen take an average of five hours to germinate. During sporulation, it takes an average of 10.5 h for a conidiospore to mature and get detached from its conidiophore for the first time. Conidiospores are developed in a single conidiophore one after another. The microfluidic device enabled quantitative time-lapse microphotography reported here should be suitable for screening compounds, peptides, micro-organisms to identify fungitoxic or antimicrobial agents for controlling serious plant pathogens. The device could also be applied in identifying suitable target genes for host-induced gene silencing in pathogens for generating novel disease resistance in crop plants.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jill Marshall
- G303 Agronomy Hall, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011-1010, USA
| | - Xuan Qiao
- 2115 Coover Hall, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011-1010, USA
| | - Jordan Baumbach
- G303 Agronomy Hall, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011-1010, USA
| | - Jingyu Xie
- 2115 Coover Hall, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011-1010, USA
| | - Liang Dong
- 2115 Coover Hall, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011-1010, USA
| | | |
Collapse
|