Comparative Analysis of Transcriptomes of Ophiostoma novo-ulmi ssp. americana Colonizing Resistant or Sensitive Genotypes of American Elm
The Ascomycete threatens elm populations worldwide. The molecular mechanisms underlying its pathogenicity and virulence are still largely uncharacterized. As part of a collaborative study of the -elm interactome, we analyzed the ssp. transcriptomes obtained by deep sequencing of messenger RNAs recov...
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Published in | Journal of fungi (Basel) Vol. 8; no. 6; p. 637 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Switzerland
MDPI AG
16.06.2022
MDPI |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | The Ascomycete
threatens elm populations worldwide. The molecular mechanisms underlying its pathogenicity and virulence are still largely uncharacterized. As part of a collaborative study of the
-elm interactome, we analyzed the
ssp.
transcriptomes obtained by deep sequencing of messenger RNAs recovered from
saplings from one resistant (Valley Forge, VF) and one susceptible (S) elm genotypes at 0 and 96 h post-inoculation (hpi). Transcripts were identified for 6424 of the 8640 protein-coding genes annotated in the
nuclear genome. A total of 1439 genes expressed in planta had orthologs in the PHI-base curated database of genes involved in host-pathogen interactions, whereas 472 genes were considered differentially expressed (DEG) in S elms (370 genes) and VF elms (102 genes) at 96 hpi. Gene ontology (GO) terms for processes and activities associated with transport and transmembrane transport accounted for half (27/55) of GO terms that were significantly enriched in fungal genes upregulated in S elms, whereas the 22 GO terms enriched in genes overexpressed in VF elms included nine GO terms associated with metabolism, catabolism and transport of carbohydrates. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis identified three modules that were significantly associated with higher gene expression in S elms. The three modules accounted for 727 genes expressed in planta and included 103 DEGs upregulated in S elms. Knockdown- and knockout mutants were obtained for eight
genes. Although mutants remained virulent towards
saplings, we identified a large repertoire of additional candidate
pathogenicity genes for functional validation by loss-of-function approaches. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 2309-608X 2309-608X |
DOI: | 10.3390/jof8060637 |