Lifestyle transitions in plant pathogenic Colletotrichum fungi deciphered by genome and transcriptome analyses

By R. O’Connell, M. Thon, S. Hacquard, Stefan G. Amyotte, Jochen Kleemann, M. Torres, Ulrike Damm, E. Buiate, L. Epstein, N. Alkan and 57 more. Nature Genetics, 2012

908 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Colletotrichum species are fungal pathogens that devastate crop plants worldwide. Host infection involves the differentiation of specialized cell types that are associated with penetration, growth inside living host cells (biotrophy) and tissue destruction (necrotrophy). We report here genome and transcriptome analyses of Colletotrichum higginsianum infecting Arabidopsis thaliana and Colletotrichum graminicola infecting maize. Comparative genomics showed that both fungi have large sets of pathogenicity-related genes, but families of genes encoding secreted effectors, pectin-degrading enzymes, secondary metabolism enzymes, transporters and peptidases are expanded in C. higginsianum. Genome-wide expression profiling revealed that these genes are transcribed in successive waves that are linked to pathogenic transitions: effectors and secondary metabolism enzymes are induced before penetration and during biotrophy, whereas most hydrolases and transporters are upregulated later, at the switch to necrotrophy. Our findings show that preinvasion perception of plant-derived signals substantially reprograms fungal gene expression and indicate previously unknown functions for particular fungal cell types.

Subfields: Cell Biology, Plant Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7bbafdaeaf6e1a4a2e670cfdf956369108000e33

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Cell Biology

1. K. D. Hyde
2. P. W. Crous
3. Ulrike Damm
4. Bevan Simon Weir
5. Peter R. Johnston
6. P. Ades
7. P. Cannon
8. M. Câmara

In Plant Science

1. K. D. Hyde
2. P. W. Crous
3. Ulrike Damm
4. P. Cannon
5. P. Ades
6. Bevan Simon Weir
7. Peter R. Johnston
8. J. Kelly

Citations in the corpus

• Colletotrichum – current status and future directions (2012, background): “2012), but the strains studied (from lentil ( Lens culinaris ) in Canada) belong to the destructivum rather than the truncatum clade (Damm et al. 2009; O’Connell et al. 2012; Figs 2, 3).”
• COLLETOTRICHUM LINDEMUTHIANUM, THE CAUSAL AGENT OF BEAN ANTHRACNOSE (2017, background): “Studies showed that Colletotrichum species also produce effectors, but how many of them are secreted by bean anthracnose fungus is not known (Tang et al., 2006; O’Connell et al., 2012; Alkan et al., 2013; Schliebner et al., 2014).”
• Notes on currently accepted species of Colletotrichum (2016, neutral): “17 Colletotrichum graminicola redrawn from Politis (1975) and Panaccione et al. (1989). a.”
• Endophytic species of Colletotrichum associated with mango in northeastern Brazil (2014, background): “…of specialized cell types that are associated with penetration, growth inside living host cells (biotrophy) and tissue destruction (necrotrophy) (O’Connell et al. 2012) The quiescent infections occur during the pre-harvest stages, flowering and fruit development; however, infection is only…”
• Life styles of Colletotrichum species and implications for plant biosecurity (2017, background): “In general, Colletotrichum species show different life styles that vary between groups of species, with most species being able to sequentially switch between life styles (O’Connell et al., 2012).”