In:
PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science (PLoS), Vol. 16, No. 8 ( 2021-8-5), p. e0252365-
Abstract:
In filamentous fungi, gene silencing by RNA interference (RNAi) shapes many biological processes, including pathogenicity. Recently, fungal small RNAs (sRNAs) have been shown to act as effectors that disrupt gene activity in interacting plant hosts, thereby undermining their defence responses. We show here that the devastating mycotoxin-producing ascomycete Fusarium graminearum ( Fg ) utilizes DICER-like (DCL)-dependent sRNAs to target defence genes in two Poaceae hosts, barley ( Hordeum vulgare , Hv ) and Brachypodium distachyon ( Bd ). We identified 104 Fg -sRNAs with sequence homology to host genes that were repressed during interactions of Fg and Hv , while they accumulated in plants infected by the DCL double knock-out (dKO) mutant PH1- dcl1/2 . The strength of target gene expression correlated with the abundance of the corresponding Fg -sRNA. Specifically, the abundance of three tRNA-derived fragments (tRFs) targeting immunity-related Ethylene overproducer 1-like 1 ( HvEOL1) and three Poaceae orthologues of Arabidopsis thaliana BRI1-associated receptor kinase 1 ( HvBAK1 , HvSERK2 and BdSERK2 ) was dependent on fungal DCL. Additionally, RNA-ligase-mediated Rapid Amplification of cDNA Ends (RLM-RACE) identified infection-specific degradation products for the three barley gene transcripts, consistent with the possibility that tRFs contribute to fungal virulence via targeted gene silencing.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
1932-6203
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0252365
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0252365.g001
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0252365.g002
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0252365.g003
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0252365.g004
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0252365.g005
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0252365.g006
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0252365.g007
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0252365.t001
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0252365.t002
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0252365.s001
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0252365.s002
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0252365.s003
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0252365.s004
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0252365.s005
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0252365.s006
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0252365.s007
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0252365.s008
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0252365.s009
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0252365.s010
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0252365.s011
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0252365.s012
Language:
English
Publisher:
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Publication Date:
2021
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2267670-3
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