Histone Methylation Is Required for Virulence, Conidiation, and Multi-Stress Resistance of Alternaria alternata
Histone methylation, which is critical for transcriptional regulation and various biological processes in eukaryotes, is a reversible dynamic process regulated by histone methyltransferases (HMTs) and histone demethylases (HDMs). This study determined the function of 5 HMTs ( AaDot1 , AaHMT1 , AaHnr...
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Published in | Frontiers in microbiology Vol. 13; p. 924476 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Frontiers Media S.A
16.06.2022
|
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Histone methylation, which is critical for transcriptional regulation and various biological processes in eukaryotes, is a reversible dynamic process regulated by histone methyltransferases (HMTs) and histone demethylases (HDMs). This study determined the function of 5 HMTs (
AaDot1
,
AaHMT1
,
AaHnrnp
,
AaSet1
, and
AaSet2
) and 1 HDMs (
AaGhd2
) in the phytopathogenic fungus
Alternaria alternata
by analyzing targeted gene deletion mutants. The vegetative growth, conidiation, and pathogenicity of ∆
AaSet1
and ∆
AaSet2
were severely inhibited indicating that
AaSet1
and
AaSet2
play critical roles in cell development in
A. alternata
. Multiple stresses analysis revealed that both
AaSet1
and
AaSet2
were involved in the adaptation to cell wall interference agents and osmotic stress. Meanwhile, ∆
AaSet1
and ∆
AaSet2
displayed serious vegetative growth defects in sole carbon source medium, indicating that
AaSet1
and
AaSet2
play an important role in carbon source utilization. In addition, ∆
AaSet2
colony displayed white in color, while the wild-type colony was dark brown, indicating
AaSet2
is an essential gene for melanin biosynthesis in
A. alternata
.
AaSet2
was required for the resistance to oxidative stress. On the other hand, all of ∆
AaDot1
, ∆
AaHMT1
, and ∆
AaGhd2
mutants displayed wild-type phenotype in vegetative growth, multi-stress resistance, pathogenicity, carbon source utilization, and melanin biosynthesis. To explore the regulatory mechanism of
AaSet1
and
AaSet2
, RNA-seq of these mutants and wild-type strain was performed. Phenotypes mentioned above correlated well with the differentially expressed genes in ∆
AaSet1
and ∆
AaSet2
according to the KEGG and GO enrichment results. Overall, our study provides genetic evidence that defines the central role of HMTs and HDMs in the pathological and biological functions of
A. alternata
. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 Reviewed by: Yueqiang Leng, North Dakota State University, United States; Yanjun Kou, China National Rice Research Institute (CAAS), China These authors have contributed equally to this work This article was submitted to Microbe and Virus Interactions With Plants, a section of the journal Frontiers in Microbiology Edited by: Miaoying Tian, University of Hawaii at Manoa, United States |
ISSN: | 1664-302X 1664-302X |
DOI: | 10.3389/fmicb.2022.924476 |