A proteomic study of pectin-degrading enzymes secreted by Botrytis cinerea grown in liquid culture

Fungicide-Loaded Liposomes for the Treatment of Fungal Diseases in Agriculture: An Assessment of Botrytis cinerea

In this work, liposomes loaded with the fungicide, Fludioxonil (FLUD), for the containment of fungal diseases in agriculture were developed. Three types of vesicles with different compositions were compared: (I) plain vesicles, composed of soy phosphatidylcholine and cholesterol; (II) PEG-coated vesicles, with an additional polyethylene glycol coating; and (III) cationic vesicles, containing didodecyldimethylammonium bromide. Nanometric-sized vesicles were obtained both by the micelle-to-vesicle transition method and by the extrusion technique, and encapsulation efficiency, drug loading content, and Zeta potential were determined for all the samples. The extruded and PEGylated liposomes were the most stable over time and together with the cationic ones showed a significant prolonged FLUD release capacity. The liposomes' biological activity was evaluated on conidial germination, germ tube elongation and colony radial growth of the ascomycete Botrytis cinerea, a phytopathogenic fungus affecting worldwide many important agricultural crops in the field as well as in the postharvest phase. The extruded and PEGylated liposomes showed greater effectiveness in inhibiting germ tube elongation and colony radial growth of the fungal pathogen, even at 0.01 µg·mL-1, the lowest concentration assessed.

Characterization of two SGNH family cell death-inducing proteins from the horticulturally important fungal pathogen Botrytis cinerea based on the optimized prokaryotic expression system

Botrytis cinerea is one of the most destructive phytopathogenic fungi, causing significant losses to horticultural crops. As a necrotrophic fungus, B. cinerea obtains nutrients by killing host cells. Secreted cell death-inducing proteins (CDIPs) play a crucial role in necrotrophic infection; however, only a limited number have been reported. For high-throughput CDIP screening, we optimized the prokaryotic expression system and compared its efficiency with other commonly used protein expression systems. The optimized prokaryotic expression system showed superior effectiveness and efficiency and was selected for subsequent CDIP screening. The screening system verified fifty-five candidate proteins and identified two novel SGNH family CDIPs: BcRAE and BcFAT. BcRAE and BcFAT exhibited high expression levels throughout the infection process. Site-directed mutagenesis targeting conserved Ser residues abolished the cell death-inducing activity of both BcRAE and BcFAT. Moreover, the transient expression of BcRAE and BcFAT in plants enhanced plant resistance against B. cinerea without inducing cell death, independent of their enzymatic activities. Our results suggest a high-efficiency screening system for high-throughput CDIP screening and provide new targets for further study of B. cinerea-plant interactions.

Fungal Secretomics Through iTRAQ-Based Analysis

Our understanding of how fungi respond and adapt to external environments can be increased by the comprehensive data sets of fungal-secreted proteins. Fungi produce a variety of secreted proteins, and environmental conditions can easily influence the fungal secretome. However, the low abundance of secreted proteins and their post-translational modifications make protein extraction more challenging. Hence, the enrichment of secreted proteins is a crucial procedure for secretome analysis. This chapter illustrates a protocol for iTRAQ-based quantitative secretome analysis describing the example of fungi exposed to different environmental conditions. The fungal-secreted proteins can be extracted by combining ultrafiltration and TCA-acetone precipitation. Subsequently, the secreted proteins can be identified and quantified by the iTRAQ-based quantitative proteomics approach.

On the Future Perspectives of Some Medicinal Plants within Lamiaceae Botanic Family Regarding Their Comprehensive Properties and Resistance against Biotic and Abiotic Stresses

Lamiaceae is one of the largest botanical families, encompassing over 6000 species that include a variety of aromatic and medicinal spices. The current study is focused on three plants within this botanical family: basil (Ocimum basilicum L.), thyme (Thymus vulgaris L.), and summer savory (Satureja hortensis L.). These three species contain primary and secondary metabolites such as phenolic and flavonoid compounds, fatty acids, antioxidants, and essential oils and have traditionally been used for flavoring, food preservation, and medicinal purposes. The goal of this study is to provide an overview of the nutraceutical, therapeutic, antioxidant, and antibacterial key features of these three aromatics to explore new breeding challenges and opportunities for varietal development. In this context, a literature search has been performed to describe the phytochemical profile of both primary and secondary metabolites and their pharmacological uses, as well as to further explore accession availability in the medicine industry and also to emphasize their bioactive roles in plant ecology and biotic and abiotic stress adaptability. The aim of this review is to explore future perspectives on the development of new, highly valuable basil, summer savory, and thyme cultivars. The findings of the current review emphasize the importance of identifying the key compounds and genes involved in stress resistance that can also provide valuable insights for further improvement of these important medicinal plants.

The Botrytis cinerea Gene Expression Browser

For comprehensive gene expression analyses of the phytopathogenic fungus Botrytis cinerea, which infects a number of plant taxa and is a cause of substantial agricultural losses worldwide, we developed BEB, a web-based B. cinerea gene Expression Browser. This computationally inexpensive web-based application and its associated database contain manually curated RNA-Seq data for B. cinerea. BEB enables expression analyses of genes of interest under different culture conditions by providing publication-ready heatmaps depicting transcript levels, without requiring advanced computational skills. BEB also provides details of each experiment and user-defined gene expression clustering and visualization options. If needed, tables of gene expression values can be downloaded for further exploration, including, for instance, the determination of differentially expressed genes. The BEB implementation is based on open-source computational technologies that can be deployed for other organisms. In this case, the new implementation will be limited only by the number of transcriptomic experiments that are incorporated into the platform. To demonstrate the usability and value of BEB, we analyzed gene expression patterns across different conditions, with a focus on secondary metabolite gene clusters, chromosome-wide gene expression, previously described virulence factors, and reference genes, providing the first comprehensive expression overview of these groups of genes in this relevant fungal phytopathogen. We expect this tool to be broadly useful in B. cinerea research, providing a basis for comparative transcriptomics and candidate gene identification for functional assays.

Activation of the VQ Motif-Containing Protein Gene VQ28 Compromised Nonhost Resistance of Arabidopsis thaliana to Phytophthora Pathogens

Nonhost resistance refers to resistance of a plant species to all genetic variants of a non-adapted pathogen. Such resistance has the potential to become broad-spectrum and durable crop disease resistance. We previously employed Arabidopsis thaliana and a forward genetics approach to identify plant mutants susceptible to the nonhost pathogen Phytophthora sojae, which resulted in identification of the T-DNA insertion mutant esp1 (enhanced susceptibility to Phytophthora). In this study, we report the identification of VQ motif-containing protein 28 (VQ28), whose expression was highly up-regulated in the mutant esp1. Stable transgenic A. thaliana plants constitutively overexpressing VQ28 compromised nonhost resistance (NHR) against P. sojae and P. infestans, and supported increased infection of P. parasitica. Transcriptomic analysis showed that overexpression of VQ28 resulted in six differentially expressed genes (DEGs) that are involved in the response to abscisic acid (ABA). High performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS) detection showed that the contents of endogenous ABA, salicylic acid (SA), and jasmonate (JA) were enriched in VQ28 overexpression lines. These findings suggest that overexpression of VQ28 may lead to an imbalance in plant hormone homeostasis. Furthermore, transient overexpression of VQ28 in Nicotiana benthamiana rendered plants more susceptible to Phytophthora pathogens. Deletion mutant analysis showed that the C-terminus and VQ-motif were essential for plant susceptibility. Taken together, our results suggest that VQ28 negatively regulates plant NHR to Phytophthora pathogens.

Unravelling the Initial Triggers of Botrytis cinerea Infection: First Description of Its Surfactome

Botrytis cinerea is a critically important phytopathogenic fungus, causing devastating crop losses; signal transduction cascades mediate the “dialogue” among the fungus, plant, and environment. Surface proteins play important roles as front-line receptors. We report the first description of the surfactome of a filamentous fungus. To obtain a complete view of these cascades during infection of B. cinerea, its surfactome has been described by optimization of the “shaving” process and LC–MS/MS at two different infection stages, and with both rapid and late responses to environmental changes. The best results were obtained using PBS buffer in the “shaving” protocol. The surfactome obtained comprises 1010 identified proteins. These have been categorized by gene ontology and protein–protein interactions to reveal new potential pathogenicity/virulence factors. From these data, the percentage of total proteins predicted for the genome of the fungus represented by proteins identified in this and other proteomics studies is calculated at 54%, a big increase over the previous 12%. The new data may be crucial for understanding better its biological activity and pathogenicity. Given its extensive exposure to plants and environmental conditions, the surfactome presents innumerable opportunities for interactions between the fungus and external elements, which should offer the best targets for fungicide development.

Differential proteomics reveals main determinants for the improved pectinase activity in UV-mutagenized Aspergillus niger strain

OBJECTIVES

To reveal the potential mechanism and key determinants that contributed to the improved pectinase activity in Aspergillus niger mutant EIMU2, which was previously obtained by UV-mutagenesis from the wild-type A. niger EIM-6.

RESULTS

Proteomic analysis for Aspergillus niger EIMU2 by two-dimensional electrophoresis demonstrated that mutant EIMU2 harbored a multiple enzyme system for the degradation of pectin, mainly constituting by main-chain-cleaving enzymes polygalacturonase, pectate lyase, pectinesterase, and some accessory enzymes rhamnogalacturonan lyase and arabinofuranosidase. Further quantitatively differential proteomic analysis revealed that the quantities of four proteins, pectinesterase, rhamnogalacturonan lyase A, DNA-directed RNA polymerase A, and a hypothetical protein in strain EIMU2 were much higher than those in EIM-6. PCR amplification, sequencing and alignment analysis of genes for the two main members of pectin-degrading enzymes, pectate lyase and polygalacturonase showed that their sequences were completely consistent in A. niger EIM-6 and mutant EIMU2.

CONCLUSIONS

The result demonstrated that the improved pectinase activity by UV-mutagenesis in A. niger EIMU2 was probably contributed to the up-regulated expression of rhamnogalacturonan lyase, or pectinesterase, which resulted in the optimization of synergy amongst different components of pectin-degrading enzymes.

Pectin as Carbon Source for Monilinia laxa Exoproteome and Expression Profiles of Related Genes

Pectin, as part of the fruit cell wall, can be degraded by brown rot fungi by coordinating the production, secretion, and action of extracellular enzymes. In this study, pectin utilization by the necrotroph Monilinia laxa 8L was studied by in vitro and in silico approaches. A total of 403 genes encoding carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZymes) were identified, including 38 coding a predicted pectin-degrading activity. Analyzing the differences between M. laxa 8L exoproteomes in media containing glucose and pectin as sole carbon sources, we identified 107 pectin-specific proteins, among them, 64.48% harbor a classical secretory activity, including 42 CAZymes and six pectin-degrading proteins. Analyzing the gene-expression patterns of some pectinase families revealed their possible sequential action in pectin disassembly. We found, in vitro, an early pectin-dependent induction of MlRGAE1, MlPG1, and three members of the rhamnosidase family (MlαRHA2, MlαRHA3, and MlαRHA6) and late response of MlPG2 and MlPNL3. M. laxa 8L has the ability to use both pectin and byproducts as carbon sources, based on a functional pectinolytic machinery encoded in its genome, subjected to pectin-dependent regulation and appropriate secretion mechanisms of these pectinolytic enzymes. Differences in the secretion and transcription profile of M. laxa 8L provided insights into the different mechanisms that contribute to brown rot development.

Copper induces transcription of BcLCC2 laccase gene in phytopathogenic fungus, Botrytis cinerea

Laccases are one of many groups of inducible enzymes produced by the filamentous fungus, Botrytis cinerea during colonisation of host plant tissues. While the processes involved in laccase induction are not fully understood, Cupric ions (e.g. CuSO₄) and gallic acid (GA) have been reported as laccase inducers. This study investigates laccases activities and the expression of three laccase genes (BcLCC1, BcLCC2, BcLCC3) in three B. cinerea isolates grown in laccase-inducing medium (LIM) supplemented with CuSO₄ and GA. Laccase activity in culture filtrates with CuSO₄ increased after 48 h of growth in LIM at 24°C. The induction of BcLCC2 transcription was greatest at a concentration of 0.6 mM CuSO₄, concentrations greater than 0.6 mM inhibited fungal growth. In contrast, no laccase induction was observed in the presence of GA. Liquid chromatography-mass spectroscopy (NanoLC ESI MS/MS) analysis confirmed the presence of a 63.4 kDa protein, the BcLCC2 isoform in the culture filtrate with 0.6 mM CuSO₄. Analysis of mRNA transcripts further showed BcLCC3 was also inducible and the expression of BcLCC2 and BcLCC3 was isolate-dependent. In conclusion, CuSO₄ induces a 63.4 kDa laccase in B. cinerea by induced transcription of the BcLCC2 gene.

Impact of Botrytis cinerea Contamination on the Characteristics and Foamability of Yeast Macromolecules Released during the Alcoholic Fermentation of a Model Grape Juice

Botrytis cinerea is a fungal pathogen responsible for the decrease in foamability of sparkling wines. The proteolysis of must proteins originating from botrytized grapes is well known, but far less information is available concerning the effect of grape juice contamination by Botrytis. The impact from Botrytis on the biochemical and physico-chemical characteristics of proteins released from Saccharomyces during alcoholic fermentation remains elusive. To address this lack of knowledge, a model grape juice was inoculated with three enological yeasts with or without the Botrytis culture supernatant. Size exclusion chromatography coupled to multi-angle light scattering (SEC-MALLS) and sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) techniques (AgNO₃ and periodic acid Schiff staining) was used in the study. When Botrytis enzymes were present, a significant degradation of the higher and medium MW molecules released by Saccharomyces was observed during alcoholic fermentation whilst the lower MW fraction increased. For the three yeast strains studied, the results clearly showed a strong decrease in the wine foamability when synthetic musts were inoculated with 5% (v/v) of Botrytis culture due to fungus proteases.

Proteomic Studies to Understand the Mechanisms of Peach Tissue Degradation by Monilinia laxa

Monilinia laxa is a necrotrophic plant pathogen able to infect and produce substantial losses on stone fruit. Three different isolates of M. laxa were characterized according to their aggressiveness on nectarines. M. laxa 8L isolate was the most aggressive on fruit, 33L isolate displayed intermediated virulence level, and 5L was classified as a weak aggressive isolate. Nectarine colonization process by the weak isolate 5L was strongly delayed. nLC-MS/MS proteomic studies using in vitro peach cultures provided data on exoproteomes of the three isolates at equivalent stages of brown rot colonization; 3 days for 8L and 33L, and 7 days for 5L. A total of 181 proteins were identified from 8L exoproteome and 289 proteins from 33L at 3 dpi, and 206 proteins were identified in 5L exoproteome at 7 dpi. Although an elevated number of proteins lacked a predicted function, the vast majority of proteins belong to OG group "metabolism", composed of categories such as "carbohydrate transport and metabolism" in 5L, and "energy production and conversion" most represented in 8L and 33L. Among identified proteins, 157 that carried a signal peptide were further examined and classified. Carbohydrate-active enzymes and peptidases were the main groups revealing different protein alternatives with the same function among isolates. Our data suggested a subset of secreted proteins as possible markers of differential virulence in more aggressive isolates, MlPG1 MlPME3, NEP-like, or endoglucanase proteins. A core-exoproteome among isolates independently of their virulence but time-dependent was also described. This core included several well-known virulence factors involved in host-tissue factors like cutinase, pectin lyases, and acid proteases. The secretion patterns supported the assumption that M. laxa deploys an extensive repertoire of proteins to facilitate the host infection and colonization and provided information for further characterization of M. laxa pathogenesis.

Comparative quantitative proteomics of osmotic signal transduction mutants in Botrytis cinerea explain mutant phenotypes and highlight interaction with cAMP and Ca2+ signalling pathways

Signal transduction (ST) is essential for rapid adaptive responses to changing environmental conditions. It acts through rapid post-translational modifications of signalling proteins and downstream effectors that regulate the activity and/or subcellular localisation of target proteins, or the expression of downstream genes. We have performed a quantitative, comparative proteomics study of ST mutants in the phytopathogenic fungus Botrytis cinerea during axenic growth under non-stressed conditions to decipher the roles of two kinases of the hyper-osmolarity pathway in B. cinerea physiology. We studied the mutants of the sensor histidine kinase Bos1 and of the MAP kinase Sak1. Label-free shotgun proteomics detected 2425 proteins, 628 differentially abundant between mutants and wild-type, 270 common to both mutants, indicating independent and shared regulatory functions for both kinases. Gene ontology analysis showed significant changes in functional categories that may explain in vitro growth and virulence defects of both mutants (secondary metabolism enzymes, lytic enzymes, proteins linked to osmotic, oxidative and cell wall stress). The proteome data also highlight a new link between Sak1 MAPK, cAMP and Ca²⁺ signalling. This study reveals the potential of proteomic analyses of signal transduction mutants to decipher their biological functions. TEXT-VULGARISATION: The fungus Botrytis cinerea is responsible for grey mold disease of hundreds of plant species. During infection, the fungus has to face important changes of its environment. Adaptation to these changing environmental conditions involves proteins of such called signal transduction pathways that regulate the production, activity or localisation of cellular components, mainly proteins. While the components of such signal transduction pathways are well known, their role globally understood, the precise impact on protein production remains unknown. In this study we have analysed and compared the global protein content of two Botrytis cinerea signal transduction mutants - both avirulent - to the pathogenic parental strain. The data of 628 differential proteins between mutants and wild-type, showed significant changes in proteins related to plant infection (secondary metabolism enzymes, lytic enzymes, proteins linked to osmotic, oxidative and cell wall stress) that may explain the virulence defects of both mutants. Moreover, we observed intracellular accumulation of secreted proteins in one of the mutants suggesting a potential secretion defect.

Infection Strategies Deployed by Botrytis cinerea, Fusarium acuminatum, and Rhizopus stolonifer as a Function of Tomato Fruit Ripening Stage

Worldwide, 20-25% of all harvested fruit and vegetables are lost annually in the field and throughout the postharvest supply chain due to rotting by fungal pathogens. Most postharvest pathogens exhibit necrotrophic or saprotrophic lifestyles, resulting in decomposition of the host tissues and loss of marketable commodities. Necrotrophic fungi can readily infect ripe fruit leading to the rapid establishment of disease symptoms. However, these pathogens generally fail to infect unripe fruit or remain quiescent until host conditions stimulate a successful infection. Previous research on infections of fruit has mainly been focused on the host's genetic and physicochemical factors that inhibit or promote disease. Here, we investigated if fruit pathogens can modify their own infection strategies in response to the ripening stage of the host. To test this hypothesis, we profiled global gene expression of three fungal pathogens that display necrotrophic behavior-Botrytis cinerea, Fusarium acuminatum, and Rhizopus stolonifer-during interactions with unripe and ripe tomato fruit. We assembled and functionally annotated the transcriptomes of F. acuminatum and R. stolonifer as no genomic resources were available. Then, we conducted differential gene expression analysis to compare each pathogen during inoculations versus in vitro conditions. Through characterizing patterns of overrepresented pathogenicity and virulence functions (e.g., phytotoxin production, cell wall degradation, and proteolysis) among the differentially expressed genes, we were able to determine shared strategies among the three fungi during infections of compatible (ripe) and incompatible (unripe) fruit tissues. Though each pathogen's strategy differed in the details, interactions with unripe fruit were commonly characterized by an emphasis on the degradation of cell wall components, particularly pectin, while colonization of ripe fruit featured more heavily redox processes, proteolysis, metabolism of simple sugars, and chitin biosynthesis. Furthermore, we determined that the three fungi were unable to infect fruit from the non-ripening (nor) tomato mutant, confirming that to cause disease, these pathogens require the host tissues to undergo specific ripening processes. By enabling a better understanding of fungal necrotrophic infection strategies, we move closer to generating accurate models of fruit diseases and the development of early detection tools and effective management strategies.

Evolution and functional characterization of pectate lyase PEL12, a member of a highly expanded Clonostachys rosea polysaccharide lyase 1 family

Background

Pectin is one of the major and most complex plant cell wall components that needs to be overcome by microorganisms as part of their strategies for plant invasion or nutrition. Microbial pectinolytic enzymes therefore play a significant role for plant-associated microorganisms and for the decomposition and recycling of plant organic matter. Recently, comparative studies revealed significant gene copy number expansion of the polysaccharide lyase 1 (PL1) pectin/pectate lyase gene family in the Clonostachys rosea genome, while only low numbers were found in Trichoderma species. Both of these fungal genera are widely known for their ability to parasitize and kill other fungi (mycoparasitism) and certain species are thus used for biocontrol of plant pathogenic fungi.

Results

In order to understand the role of the high number of pectin degrading enzymes in Clonostachys, we studied diversity and evolution of the PL1 gene family in C. rosea compared with other Sordariomycetes with varying nutritional life styles. Out of 17 members of C. rosea PL1, we could only detect two to be secreted at acidic pH. One of them, the pectate lyase pel12 gene was found to be strongly induced by pectin and, to a lower degree, by polygalacturonic acid. Heterologous expression of the PEL12 in a PL1-free background of T. reesei revealed direct enzymatic involvement of this protein in utilization of pectin at pH 5 without a requirement for Ca²⁺. The mutants showed increased utilization of pectin compounds, but did not increase biocontrol ability in detached leaf assay against the plant pathogen Botrytis cinerea compared to the wild type.

Conclusions

In this study, we aimed to gain insight into diversity and evolution of the PL1 gene family in C. rosea and other Sordariomycete species in relation to their nutritional modes. We show that C. rosea PL1 expansion does not correlate with its mycoparasitic nutritional mode and resembles those of strong plant pathogenic fungi. We further investigated regulation, specificity and function of the C. rosea PEL12 and show that this enzyme is directly involved in degradation of pectin and pectin-related compounds, but not in C. rosea biocontrol.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s12866-018-1310-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The Botrytis cinerea elicitor protein BcIEB1 interacts with the tobacco PR5-family protein osmotin and protects the fungus against its antifungal activity

The broad-range phytopathogenic fungus Botrytis cinerea secretes hundreds of proteins during infection of its plant hosts. One of these proteins, BcIEB1, is abundantly secreted and is able to elicit plant defenses, probably as a pathogen-associated molecular pattern, although its native function in B. cinerea biology remains unknown. Pull-down experiments designed to isolate the molecular target of BcIEB1 in tobacco resulted in the identification of osmotin, a pathogenesis-related protein of family 5 that shows antifungal activity. The expression of osmotin in Escherichia coli allowed the verification of the BcIEB1-osmotin interaction with pure proteins by pull-down and far Western blot experiments, as well as the confirmation of the activity of osmotin against B. cinerea. Interestingly, B. cinerea Δbcieb1 mutants are more susceptible than the wild-type to osmotin, and the external addition of pure BcIEB1 protects the Δbcieb1 mutants, as well as Saccharomyces cerevisiae, from the antifungal action of osmotin, thus pointing at PR5 inhibition as the primary native function of BcIEB1. The question of whether osmotin is also involved in the activation of plant defenses by BcIEB1 is also addressed, and the data suggest that osmotin does not participate in the elicitation process.

Short oligogalacturonides induce pathogen resistance-associated gene expression in Arabidopsis thaliana

BACKGROUND

Oligogalacturonides (OGs) are important components of damage-associated molecular pattern (DAMP) signaling and influence growth regulation in plants. Recent studies have focused on the impact of long OGs (degree of polymerization (DP) from 10-15), demonstrating the induction of plant defense signaling resulting in enhanced defenses to necrotrophic pathogens. To clarify the role of trimers (trimeric OGs, DP3) in DAMP signaling and their impact on plant growth regulation, we performed a transcriptomic analysis through the RNA sequencing of Arabidopsis thaliana exposed to trimers.

RESULTS

The transcriptomic data from trimer-treated Arabidopsis seedlings indicate a clear activation of genes involved in defense signaling, phytohormone signaling and a down-regulation of genes involved in processes related to growth regulation and development. This is further accompanied with improved defenses against necrotrophic pathogens triggered by the trimer treatment, indicating that short OGs have a clear impact on plant responses, similar to those described for long OGs.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results demonstrate that trimers are indeed active elicitors of plant defenses. This is clearly indicated by the up-regulation of genes associated with plant defense signaling, accompanied with improved defenses against necrotrophic pathogens. Moreover, trimers simultaneously trigger a clear down-regulation of genes and gene sets associated with growth and development, leading to stunted seedling growth in Arabidopsis.

BcIEB1, a Botrytis cinerea secreted protein, elicits a defense response in plants

BcIEB1 is a very abundant protein in the secretome of Botrytis cinerea but it has no known function and no similarity to any characterized protein family. Previous results suggested that this protein is an elicitor of the plant defense system. In this work we have generated loss-of-function B. cinerea mutants lacking BcIEB1 and we have expressed the protein in yeast to assay its activity on plants. Analysis of the Δbcieb1 mutants did not result in any observable phenotype, including no difference in the virulence on a variety of hosts. However, when BcIEB1 was applied to plant tissues it produced necrosis as well as a whole range of symptoms: inhibition of seedling growth in Arabidopsis and tobacco, ion leakage from tobacco leaf disks, a ROS burst, cell death and autofluorescence in onion epidermis, as well as the expression of defense genes in tobacco. Moreover, tobacco plants treated with BcIEB1 showed an increased systemic resistance to B. cinerea. A small 35-amino acids peptide derived from a conserved region of BcIEB1 is almost as active on plants as the whole protein. These results clearly indicate that BcIEB1 elicits plant defenses, probably as a consequence of its recognition as a pathogen associated molecular pattern.

Separation and identification of candidate protein elicitors from the cultivation medium of Leptosphaeria maculans inducing resistance in Brassica napus

The Dothideomycete Leptosphaeria maculans, a worldwide fungal pathogen of oilseed rape (Brassica napus), secretes a broad spectrum of molecules into the cultivation medium during growth in vitro. Here, candidate elicitor molecules, which induce resistance in B. napus to L. maculans, were identified in the cultivation medium. The elicitation activity was indicated by increased transcription of pathogenesis-related gene 1 (PR1) and enhanced resistance of B. napus plants to the invasion of L. maculans. The elicitation activity was significantly lowered when the cultivation medium was heated to 80°C. Active components were further characterized by specific cleavage with the proteolytic enzymes trypsin and proteinase K and with glycosidases α-amylase and β-glucanase. The elicitor activity was eliminated by proteolytic digestion while glycosidases had no effect. The filtered medium was fractionated by either ion-exchange chromatography or isoelectric focusing. Mass spectrometry analysis of the most active fractions obtained by both separation procedures revealed predominantly enzymes that can be involved in the degradation of plant cell wall polysaccharides. This is the first study searching for L. maculans-specific secreted elicitors with a potential to be used as defense-activating agents in the protection of B. napus against L. maculans in agriculture. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 32:918-928, 2016.

Modelling of different enzyme productions by solid-state fermentation on several agro-industrial residues

A simple kinetic model, with only three fitting parameters, for several enzyme productions in Petri dishes by solid-state fermentation is proposed in this paper, which may be a valuable tool for simulation of this type of processes. Basically, the model is able to predict temporal fungal enzyme production by solid-state fermentation on complex substrates, maximum enzyme activity expected and time at which these maxima are reached. In this work, several fermentations in solid state were performed in Petri dishes, using four filamentous fungi grown on different agro-industrial residues, measuring xylanase, exo-polygalacturonase, cellulose and laccase activities over time. Regression coefficients after fitting experimental data to the proposed model turned out to be quite high in all cases. In fact, these results are very interesting considering, on the one hand, the simplicity of the model and, on the other hand, that enzyme activities correspond to different enzymes, produced by different fungi on different substrates.

Temporal changes in fungal communities from buckwheat seeds and their effects on seed germination and seedling secondary metabolism

Seed-associated fungal communities affect multiple parameters of seed quality at all stages of production, from seed development to post-harvest storage and germination. We therefore investigated the diversity and dynamics of fungal communities in the seeds of common buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) and Tartary buckwheat (F. tataricum) from harvest to 1 y of storage. Fungal populations in seeds were relatively stable, comprised mainly of field fungi. Incidence of fungi was most likely determined by fungal interspecies direct interactions, as well as by their synthesis of volatile organic compounds. Most prominent antagonistic interactions were seen for two plant pathogens, Alternaria alternata on Botrytis cinerea. Detrimental effects of the fungi on seed germination and seedling development were related to fungal extracellular enzyme activity, and in particular to amylase, cellulase and, polyphenol oxidase. Polyphenol and tannin concentrations in buckwheat seedlings were related to fungal growth rate and intensity of fungal cellulase activity, respectively, which suggests that physical penetration of the fungi through the host tissues is probably the stimulus for the activation of plant defence reactions in these seedlings.

'Omics' and Plant Responses to Botrytis cinerea

Botrytis cinerea is a dangerous plant pathogenic fungus with wide host ranges. This aggressive pathogen uses multiple weapons to invade and cause serious damages on its host plants. The continuing efforts of how to solve the "puzzle" of the multigenic nature of B. cinerea's pathogenesis and plant defense mechanisms against the disease caused by this mold, the integration of omic approaches, including genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics, along with functional analysis could be a potential solution. Omic studies will provide a foundation for development of genetic manipulation and breeding programs that will eventually lead to crop improvement and protection. In this mini-review, we will highlight the current progresses in research in plant stress responses to B. cinerea using high-throughput omic technologies. We also discuss the opportunities that omic technologies can provide to research on B. cinerea-plant interactions as an example showing the impacts of omics on agricultural research.

Apoplastic interactions between plants and plant root intruders

Numerous pathogenic or parasitic organisms attack plant roots to obtain nutrients, and the apoplast including the plant cell wall is where the plant cell meets such organisms. Root parasitic angiosperms and nematodes are two distinct types of plant root parasites but share some common features in their strategies for breaking into plant roots. Striga and Orobanche are obligate root parasitic angiosperms that cause devastating agricultural problems worldwide. Parasitic plants form an invasion organ called a haustorium, where plant cell wall degrading enzymes (PCWDEs) are highly expressed. Plant-parasitic nematodes are another type of agriculturally important plant root parasite. These nematodes breach the plant cell walls by protruding a sclerotized stylet from which PCWDEs are secreted. Responding to such parasitic invasion, host plants activate their own defense responses against parasites. Endoparasitic nematodes secrete apoplastic effectors to modulate host immune responses and to facilitate the formation of a feeding site. Apoplastic communication between hosts and parasitic plants also contributes to their interaction. Parasitic plant germination stimulants, strigolactones, are recently identified apoplastic signals that are transmitted over long distances from biosynthetic sites to functioning sites. Here, we discuss recent advances in understanding the importance of apoplastic signals and cell walls for plant-parasite interactions.

Unraveling the in vitro secretome of the phytopathogen Botrytis cinerea to understand the interaction with its hosts

Botrytis cinerea is a necrotrophic fungus with high adaptability to different environments and hosts. It secretes a large number of extracellular proteins, which favor plant tissue penetration and colonization, thus contributing to virulence. Secretomics is a proteomics sub-discipline which study the secreted proteins and their secretion mechanisms, so-called secretome. By using proteomics as experimental approach, many secreted proteins by B. cinerea have been identified from in vitro experiments, and belonging to different functional categories: (i) cell wall-degrading enzymes such as pectinesterases and endo-polygalacturonases; (ii) proteases involved in host protein degradation such as an aspartic protease; (iii) proteins related to the oxidative burst such as glyoxal oxidase; (iv) proteins which may induce the plant hypersensitive response such as a cerato-platanin domain-containing protein; and (v) proteins related to production and secretion of toxins such as malate dehydrogenase. In this mini-review, we made an overview of the proteomics contribution to the study and knowledge of the B. cinerea extracellular secreted proteins based on our current work carried out from in vitro experiments, and recent published papers both in vitro and in planta studies on this fungi. We hypothesize on the putative functions of these secreted proteins, and their connection to the biology of the B. cinerea interaction with its hosts.

Molecular profiling of the Phytophthora plurivora secretome: a step towards understanding the cross-talk between plant pathogenic oomycetes and their hosts

The understanding of molecular mechanisms underlying host–pathogen interactions in plant diseases is of crucial importance to gain insights on different virulence strategies of pathogens and unravel their role in plant immunity. Among plant pathogens, Phytophthora species are eliciting a growing interest for their considerable economical and environmental impact. Plant infection by Phytophthora phytopathogens is a complex process coordinated by a plethora of extracellular signals secreted by both host plants and pathogens. The characterization of the repertoire of effectors secreted by oomycetes has become an active area of research for deciphering molecular mechanisms responsible for host plants colonization and infection. Putative secreted proteins by Phytophthora species have been catalogued by applying high-throughput genome-based strategies and bioinformatic approaches. However, a comprehensive analysis of the effective secretome profile of Phytophthora is still lacking. Here, we report the first large-scale profiling of P. plurivora secretome using a shotgun LC-MS/MS strategy. To gain insight on the molecular signals underlying the cross-talk between plant pathogenic oomycetes and their host plants, we also investigate the quantitative changes of secreted protein following interaction of P. plurivora with the root exudate of Fagus sylvatica which is highly susceptible to the root pathogen. We show that besides known effectors, the expression and/or secretion levels of cell-wall-degrading enzymes were altered following the interaction with the host plant root exudate. In addition, a characterization of the F. sylvatica root exudate was performed by NMR and amino acid analysis, allowing the identification of the main released low-molecular weight components, including organic acids and free amino acids. This study provides important insights for deciphering the extracellular network involved in the highly susceptible P. plurivora-F. sylvatica interaction.

Identification of glycoproteins secreted by wild-type Botrytis cinerea and by protein O-mannosyltransferase mutants

Background

Botrytis cinerea secretes a high number of proteins that are predicted to have numerous O-glycosylation sites, frequently grouped in highly O-glycosylated regions, and analysis of mutants affected in O-glycosylation has shown, in B. cinerea and in other phytopathogenic fungi, that this process is important for fungal biology and virulence.

Results

We report here the purification of glycoproteins from the culture medium, for a wild-type strain of B. cinerea and for three mutants affected in the first step of O-glycosylation, and the identification of components in the purified protein samples. Overall, 158 proteins were identified belonging to a wide diversity of protein families, which possess Ser/Thr-rich regions (presumably highly O-glycosylated) twice as frequently as the whole secretome. Surprisingly, proteins predicted to be highly O-glycosylated tend to be more abundant in the secretomes of the mutants affected in O-glycosylation than in the wild type, possibly because a correct glycosylation of these proteins helps keep them in the cell wall or extracellular matrix. Overexpression of three proteins predicted to be O-glycosylated in various degrees allowed to confirm the presence of mannose α1-2 and/or α1-3 bonds, but no mannose α1-6 bonds, and resulted in an enhanced activity of the culture medium to elicit plant defenses.

Conclusions

Glycosylation of secretory proteins is very prevalent in B. cinerea and affects members of diverse protein families. O-glycosylated proteins play a role in the elicitation of plant defenses.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12866-014-0254-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The endo-arabinanase BcAra1 is a novel host-specific virulence factor of the necrotic fungal phytopathogen Botrytis cinerea

The plant cell wall is one of the first physical interfaces encountered by plant pathogens and consists of polysaccharides, of which arabinan is an important constituent. During infection, the necrotrophic plant pathogen Botrytis cinerea secretes a cocktail of plant cell-wall-degrading enzymes, including endo-arabinanase activity, which carries out the breakdown of arabinan. The roles of arabinan and endo-arabinanases during microbial infection were thus far elusive. In this study, the gene Bcara1 encoding for a novel α-1,5-L-endo-arabinanase was identified and the heterologously expressed BcAra1 protein was shown to hydrolyze linear arabinan with high efficiency whereas little or no activity was observed against the other oligo- and polysaccharides tested. The Bcara1 knockout mutants displayed reduced arabinanase activity in vitro and severe retardation in secondary lesion formation during infection of Arabidopsis leaves. These results indicate that BcAra1 is a novel endo-arabinanase and plays an important role during the infection of Arabidopsis. Interestingly, the level of Bcara1 transcript was considerably lower during the infection of Nicotiana benthamiana compared with Arabidopsis and, consequently, the ΔBcara1 mutants showed the wild-type level of virulence on N. benthamiana leaves. These results support the conclusion that the expression of Bcara1 is host dependent and is a key determinant of the disease outcome.

Quantitative secretome and glycome of primary human adipocytes during insulin resistance

Adipose tissue is both an energy storage depot and an endocrine organ. The impaired regulation of the secreted proteins of adipose tissue, known as adipocytokines, observed during obesity contributes to the onset of whole-body insulin resistance and the pathobiology of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). In addition, the global elevation of the intracellular glycosylation of proteins by O-linked β-N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc) via either genetic or pharmacological methods is sufficient to induce insulin resistance in both cultured cells and animal models. The elevation of global O-GlcNAc levels is associated with the altered expression of many adipocytokines. We have previously characterized the rodent adipocyte secretome during insulin sensitive and insulin resistant conditions. Here, we characterize and quantify the secretome and glycome of primary human adipocytes during insulin responsive and insulin resistant conditions generated by the classical method of hyperglycemia and hyperinsulinemia or by the pharmacological manipulation of O-GlcNAc levels. Using a proteomic approach, we identify 190 secreted proteins and report a total of 20 up-regulated and 6 down-regulated proteins that are detected in both insulin resistant conditions. Moreover, we apply glycomic techniques to examine (1) the sites of N-glycosylation on secreted proteins, (2) the structures of complex N- and O-glycans, and (3) the relative abundance of complex N- and O-glycans structures in insulin responsive and insulin resistant conditions. We identify 91 N-glycosylation sites derived from 51 secreted proteins, as well as 155 and 29 released N- and O-glycans respectively. We go on to quantify many of the N- and O-glycan structures between insulin responsive and insulin resistance conditions demonstrating no significant changes in complex glycosylation in the time frame for the induction of insulin resistance. Thus, our data support that the O-GlcNAc modification is involved in the regulation of adipocytokine secretion upon the induction of insulin resistance in human adipocytes.

The phytotoxic activity of the cerato-platanin BcSpl1 resides in a two-peptide motif on the protein surface

Cerato-platanin family proteins are secreted and have been found in both the fungal cell wall and the extracellular medium. They elicit defence responses in a variety of plants and have been proposed to be perceived as pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) by the plant immune system, although, in the case of the necrotroph Botrytis cinerea, the cerato-platanin BcSpl1 contributes to fungal virulence instead of plant resistance. In this study, we report that BcSpl1, which was previously found in the secretome as an abundant protein, is even more abundant in the fungal cell wall. By fusion to green fluorescent protein (GFP), we also show that BcSpl1 associates with the plant plasma membrane causing rapid morphological changes at the cellular level, such as the disorganization of chloroplasts, prior to macroscopic necrosis in the treated tissue. By a combination of serial deletion studies, synthetic peptides and chimeric proteins, we mapped the eliciting activity to a two-peptide motif in the protein surface. The expression of a chimeric protein displaying this motif in B. cinerea mutants lacking BcSpl1 undoubtedly showed that the motif is responsible for the contribution of BcSpl1 to virulence.

Genome-wide transcriptional profiling of Botrytis cinerea genes targeting plant cell walls during infections of different hosts

Cell walls are barriers that impair colonization of host tissues, but also are important reservoirs of energy-rich sugars. Growing hyphae of necrotrophic fungal pathogens, such as Botrytis cinerea (Botrytis, henceforth), secrete enzymes that disassemble cell wall polysaccharides. In this work we describe the annotation of 275 putative secreted Carbohydrate-Active enZymes (CAZymes) identified in the Botrytis B05.10 genome. Using RNAseq we determined which Botrytis CAZymes were expressed during infections of lettuce leaves, ripe tomato fruit, and grape berries. On the three hosts, Botrytis expressed a common group of 229 potentially secreted CAZymes, including 28 pectin backbone-modifying enzymes, 21 hemicellulose-modifying proteins, 18 enzymes that might target pectin and hemicellulose side-branches, and 16 enzymes predicted to degrade cellulose. The diversity of the Botrytis CAZymes may be partly responsible for its wide host range. Thirty-six candidate CAZymes with secretion signals were found exclusively when Botrytis interacted with ripe tomato fruit and grape berries. Pectin polysaccharides are notably abundant in grape and tomato cell walls, but lettuce leaf walls have less pectin and are richer in hemicelluloses and cellulose. The results of this study not only suggest that Botrytis targets similar wall polysaccharide networks on fruit and leaves, but also that it may selectively attack host wall polysaccharide substrates depending on the host tissue.

A comparative systems analysis of polysaccharide-elicited responses in Neurospora crassa reveals carbon source-specific cellular adaptations

Filamentous fungi are powerful producers of hydrolytic enzymes for the deconstruction of plant cell wall polysaccharides. However, the central question of how these sugars are perceived in the context of the complex cell wall matrix remains largely elusive. To address this question in a systematic fashion we performed an extensive comparative systems analysis of how the model filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa responds to the three main cell wall polysaccharides: pectin, hemicellulose and cellulose. We found the pectic response to be largely independent of the cellulolytic one with some overlap to hemicellulose, and in its extent surprisingly high, suggesting advantages for the fungus beyond being a mere carbon source. Our approach furthermore allowed us to identify carbon source-specific adaptations, such as the induction of the unfolded protein response on cellulose, and a commonly induced set of 29 genes likely involved in carbon scouting. Moreover, by hierarchical clustering we generated a coexpression matrix useful for the discovery of new components involved in polysaccharide utilization. This is exemplified by the identification of lat-1, which we demonstrate to encode for the physiologically relevant arabinose transporter in Neurospora. The analyses presented here are an important step towards understanding fungal degradation processes of complex biomass.

Identification of a new class of adenosine deaminase from Helicobacter pylori with homologs among diverse taxa

Early studies of Helicobacter pylori's nutritional requirements alluded to a complete purine salvage network in this organism. Recently, this hypothesis was confirmed in two strains of H. pylori, whose purine requirements were satisfied by any single purine base or nucleoside. Most of the purine conversion enzymes in H. pylori have been studied using mutant analysis; however, the gene encoding adenosine deaminase (ADD) in H. pylori remained unidentified. Through stepwise protein purification followed by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF), we discovered that H. pylori ADD is encoded by hp0267, an apparently essential gene. Hp0267 shares no sequence homology with previously characterized ADDs, yet both are members of the amidohydrolase superfamily. Hp0267 is grouped within cog0402, while other ADDs studied to date are found in cog1816. The hp0267 locus was previously misannotated as encoding a chlorohydrolase. Using purified recombinant Hp0267, we determined the enzyme's pH optimum, temperature optimum, substrate specificity, and estimated kinetic constants. In contrast to other known ADDs, Hp0267 contains Fe(II) as the relevant metal ligand. Furthermore, Hp0267 exhibits very low deaminase activity on 2'-deoxyadenosine, a substrate that is readily hydrolyzed by cog1816 ADDs. Our preliminary comparative genomic analysis suggests that Hp0267 represents a second enzyme class of adenosine deaminase whose phyletic distribution among prokaryotes is broad.

Proteomic analysis of mycelium and secretome of different Botrytis cinerea wild-type strains

The necrotrophic fungus Botrytis cinerea is a very damaging phytopathogen of wide host range and environmental persistence. It is difficult to control because of its genetic versatility, expressed in the many phenotypical differences among isolates. The genomes of the B. cinerea B05.10 and T4 strains have been recently sequenced, becoming a model system for necrotrophic pathogens, and thus opening new alternatives for functional genomics analysis. In this work, the mycelium and secreted proteome of six wild-type strains with different host range, and grown in liquid minimal medium, have been analyzed by using complementary gel-based (1-DE and 2-DE) and gel-free/label-free (nUPLC-MS(E)) approaches. We found differences in the protein profiles among strains belonging to both the mycelium and the secretome. A total of 47 and 51 variable proteins were identified in the mycelium and the secretome, respectively. Some of them, such as malate dehydrogenase or peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase from the mycelium, and endopolygalacturonase, aspartic protease or cerato-platanin protein from the secretome have been reported as virulence factors, which are involved in host-tissue invasion, pathogenicity or fungal development.

BIOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE

The necrotrophic fungus Botrytis cinerea is an important phytopathogen of wide host range and environmental persistence, causing substantial economic losses worldwide. In this work, the mycelium and secreted proteome of six B. cinerea wild-type strains with different host range have been analyzed by using complementary gel-based and gel-free/label-free approaches. Fungal genetic versatility was confirmed at the proteome level for both mycelium proteome and secreted proteins. A high number of hypothetical proteins with conserved domains related to toxin compounds or to unknown functions were identified, having qualitative differences among strains. The identification of hypothetical proteins suggests that the B. cinerea strains differ mostly in processes involved in adaptation to a particular environment or a growth condition, rather than in essential metabolic reactions. Proteomics can help in the identification of variable proteins related to the infection and colonization of host plant tissues, as well as of virulence and aggressiveness factors among different B. cinerea wild-type strains. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Trends in Microbial Proteomics.

Proteomic responses of fruits to environmental stresses

Fruits and vegetables are extremely susceptible to decay and easily lose commercial value after harvest. Different strategies have been developed to control postharvest decay and prevent quality deterioration during postharvest storage, including cold storage, controlled atmosphere (CA), and application of biotic and abiotic stimulus. In this review, mechanisms related to protein level responses of host side and pathogen side were characterized. Protein extraction protocols have been successfully developed for recalcitrant, low protein content fruit tissues. Comparative proteome profiling and functional analysis revealed that defense related proteins, energy metabolism, and antioxidant pathway played important roles in fruits in response to storage conditions and exogenous elicitor treatments. Secretome of pathogenic fungi has been well-investigated and the results indicated that hydrolytic enzymes were the key virulent factors for the pathogen infection. These protein level changes shed new light on interaction among fruits, pathogens, and environmental conditions. Potential postharvest strategies to reduce risk of fruit decay were further proposed based on currently available proteomic data.

Secretome analysis of Magnaporthe oryzae using in vitro systems

Magnaporthe oryzae is a devastating blast fungal pathogen of rice (Oryza sativa L.) that causes dramatic decreases in seed yield and quality. During the early stages of infection by this pathogen, the fungal spore senses the rice leaf surface, germinates, and penetrates the cell via an infectious structure known as an appressorium. During this process, M. oryzae secretes several proteins; however, these proteins are largely unknown mainly due to the lack of a suitable method for isolating secreted proteins during germination and appressoria formation. We examined the secretome of M. oryzae by mimicking the early stages of infection in vitro using a glass plate (GP), PVDF membrane, and liquid culture medium (LCM). Microscopic observation of M. oryzae growth revealed appressorium formation on the GP and PVDF membrane resembling natural M. oryzae-rice interactions; however, appresorium formation was not observed in the LCM. Secreted proteins were collected from the GP (3, 8, and 24 h), PVDF membrane (24 h), and LCM (48 h) and identified by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2DE) followed by tandem mass spectrometry. The GP, PVDF membrane, and LCM-derived 2D gels showed distinct protein patterns, indicating that they are complementary approaches. Collectively, 53 nonredundant proteins including previously known and novel secreted proteins were identified. Six biological functions were assigned to the proteins, with the predominant functional classes being cell wall modification, reactive oxygen species detoxification, lipid modification, metabolism, and protein modification. The in vitro system using GPs and PVDF membranes applied in this study to survey the M. oryzae secretome, can be used to further our understanding of the early interactions between M. oryzae and rice leaves.

Exploring pathogenic mechanisms of Botrytis cinerea secretome under different ambient pH based on comparative proteomic analysis

Botrytis cinerea causes gray mold rot on over 200 plant species worldwide, resulting in great economic loss every year. Cooperation of proteins secreted by B. cinerea plays an important role in its successful infection to host plants. The ambient pH, as one of the most important environmental parameters, can regulate expression of secreted proteins in various fungal pathogens. In the present study, we mainly investigated the effect of ambient pH on secretome of B. cinerea strain B05.10 with a comparative proteomic method based on 2-DE. Distinct differences in secretome of B. cinerea were found between pH 4 and 6 treatments, and 47 differential spots, corresponding to 21 unique proteins, were identified using MALDI-TOF/TOF. At pH 4, more proteins related to proteolysis were induced, whereas most of up-accumulated proteins were cell wall degrading enzymes at pH 6. Analysis of gene expression using quantitative real-time PCR suggests that production of most of these proteins was regulated at the level of transcription. These findings indicate that B. cinerea can adjust protein profile of secretome responding to different ambient pH values and provide evidence to deeply understand the complicated infecting mechanisms of B. cinerea on a wide range of plant hosts.

Proteomic techniques for plant-fungal interactions

Proteomics is a key technique that is helping elucidate many complex biological processes. The analysis of plant-pathogen interactions using proteomics is complicated by the presence of the proteomes of two species, but is benefiting from the developing maturity and power of these techniques. More and more pathogen genomes are being sequenced, so fungal proteomics is reaching its full potential and remains the chosen technology to unravel the molecular pathways of pathogenicity and resistance. In this chapter, we suggest proteomic strategies that have proved successful on various plant-interacting fungal species. Several protein extraction methods are described. For adequate quantitative analyses of protein abundances, we recommend either separation using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis or labelling with isobaric tags followed by two-dimensional HPLC separation. Proteins of interest are then identified using mass spectrometry. Identified proteins can assist in refining genome annotations, otherwise known as proteogenomics.

Tools for Botrytis cinerea: New expression vectors make the gray mold fungus more accessible to cell biology approaches

Targeted gene inactivation is extensively used in the plant pathogenic fungus Botrytis cinerea for gene function analysis while strategies involving the expression of reporter genes have been rarely used due to the lack of appropriate expression vectors. Hence, an approach was initiated to establish an expression system for B.cinerea possessing the following features: (i) the targeted integration of constructs at defined gene loci which are dispensable under standard growth conditions, (ii) the use of promoter and terminator sequences allowing optimal gene expression, (iii) the use of codon-optimized reporter genes (Leroch et al., 2011), (iv) the use of multiple selection markers, and (v) the incorporation of a highly efficient cloning system. A set of basic vectors was generated by yeast recombinational cloning permitting a variety of protein fusions. The successful application of the expression system for labeling F-actin, the cytosol, the nuclei, the membrane, the ER and the peroxisomes was demonstrated. In addition, cloning vectors for bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) analyses for studying protein-protein interactions in situ were generated by splitting the codon-optimized gfp. The functionality of the constructed BiFC vectors was validated by demonstrating the interaction of the two white collar-like transcription factors BcWCL1 and BcWCL2 in the nuclei of growing B. cinerea hyphae.

Proteomic analysis of ripening tomato fruit infected by Botrytis cinerea

Botrytis cinerea, a model necrotrophic fungal pathogen that causes gray mold as it infects different organs on more than 200 plant species, is a significant contributor to postharvest rot in fresh fruit and vegetables, including tomatoes. By describing host and pathogen proteomes simultaneously in infected tissues, the plant proteins that provide resistance and allow susceptibility and the pathogen proteins that promote colonization and facilitate quiescence can be identified. This study characterizes fruit and fungal proteins solubilized in the B. cinerea-tomato interaction using shotgun proteomics. Mature green, red ripe wild type and ripening inhibited (rin) mutant tomato fruit were infected with B. cinerea B05.10, and the fruit and fungal proteomes were identified concurrently 3 days postinfection. One hundred eighty-six tomato proteins were identified in common among red ripe and red ripe-equivalent ripening inhibited (rin) mutant tomato fruit infected by B. cinerea. However, the limited infections by B. cinerea of mature green wild type fruit resulted in 25 and 33% fewer defense-related tomato proteins than in red and rin fruit, respectively. In contrast, the ripening stage of genotype of the fruit infected did not affect the secreted proteomes of B. cinerea. The composition of the collected proteins populations and the putative functions of the identified proteins argue for their role in plant-pathogen interactions.

A yeast secretion trap assay for identification of secreted proteins from eukaryotic phytopathogens and their plant hosts

Secreted proteins from plants and phytopathogens play important roles in their interactions and contribute to elaborate mechanisms of attack, defense, and counter-defense, as well as surveillance and signaling. There is therefore considerable interest in developing techniques to characterize "secretomes." Here, we describe the use of the yeast secretion trap (YST) functional screen to isolate and identify secreted proteins that are accumulated and detected in the extracellular matrix of eukaryotes. This method involves fusing cDNAs generated or derived from plants, pathogens, or infected tissue to a yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) invertase (suc2) reporter gene lacking its signal peptide, transforming the resulting fusion library into an invertase-deficient yeast strain, and plating the transformants on a sucrose selection medium. A yeast transformant containing a cDNA that encodes a secreted protein can rescue the mutant and the plasmid DNA can then be sequenced to identify the secreted protein. The YST screen can be a very powerful tool in the study of dynamics of plant host-pathogen interactions.

BcSpl1, a cerato-platanin family protein, contributes to Botrytis cinerea virulence and elicits the hypersensitive response in the host

Proteins belonging to the cerato-platanin family are small proteins with phytotoxic activity. A member of this family, BcSpl1, is one of the most abundant proteins in the Botrytis cinerea secretome. Expression analysis of the bcspl1 gene revealed that the transcript is present in every condition studied, showing the highest level in planta at the late stages of infection. Expression of a second cerato-platanin gene found in the B. cinerea genome, bcspl2, was not detected in any condition. Two bcspl1 knock-out mutants were generated and both showed reduced virulence in a variety of hosts. • bcspl1 was expressed in Pichia pastoris and the recombinant protein was able to cause a fast and strong necrosis when infiltrated in tomato, tobacco and Arabidopsis leaves, in a dose-dependent manner. The BcSpl1-treated plant tissues showed symptoms of the hypersensitive response such as induction of reactive oxygen species, electrolyte leakage, cytoplasm shrinkage, and cell autofluorescence, as well as the induction of defense genes considered to be markers of the hypersensitive response. The Arabidopsis bak1 mutation partially prevented the induction of necrosis in this plant by BcSpl1. Two different BcSpl1-derived 40-amino acids peptides were also active in inducing necrosis.

LongSAGE gene-expression profiling of Botrytis cinerea germination suppressed by resveratrol, the major grapevine phytoalexin

The ascomycetes Botrytis cinerea is one of the most studied necrotrophic phytopathogens and one of the main fungal parasites of grapevine. As a defense mechanism, grapevine produces a phytoalexin compound, resveratrol, which inhibits germination of the fungal conidium before it can penetrate the plant barriers and lead to host cell necrotrophy. To elucidate the effect of resveratrol on transcriptional regulation in B. cinerea germlings, two LongSAGE (long serial analysis of gene expression) libraries were generated in vitro for gene-expression profiling: 41 428 tags and among them, 15 665 unitags were obtained from resveratrol-treated B. cinerea germlings and 41 358 tags, among them, 16 362 unitags were obtained from non-treated B. cinerea germlings. In-silico analysis showed that about half of these unitags match known genes in the complete B. cinerea genome sequence. Comparison of unitag frequencies between libraries highlighted 110 genes that were transcriptionally regulated in the presence of resveratrol: 53 and 57 genes were significantly down- and upregulated, respectively. Manual curation of their putative functional categories showed that primary metabolism of germinating conidia appears to be markedly affected under resveratrol treatment, along with changes in other putative metabolic pathways, such as resveratrol detoxification and virulence-effector secretion, in B. cinerea germlings. We propose a hypothetical model of cross talk between B. cinerea germinating conidia and resveratrol-producing grapevine at the very early steps of infection.

The Botrytis cinerea early secretome

The extracellular proteome, or secretome, of phytopathogenic fungi is presumed to be a key element of their infection strategy. Especially interesting constituents of this set are those proteins secreted at the beginning of the infection, during the germination of conidia on the plant surfaces or wounds, since they may play essential roles in the establishment of a successful infection. We have germinated Botrytis cinerea conidia in conditions that resemble the plant environment, a synthetic medium enriched with low molecular weight plant compounds, and we have collected the proteins secreted during the first 16 h by a double precipitation protocol. 2-D electrophoresis of the precipitated secretome showed a spot pattern similar for all conditions evaluated and for the control medium without plant extract. The proteins in 16 of these spots were identified by PMF and corresponded to 11 different polypeptides. Alternative determination of secretome composition by LC-MS/MS of tryptic fragments rendered a much larger number, 105 proteins, which included all previously identified by PMF. All proteins were functionally classified according to their putative function in the infection process. Key features of the early secretome include a large number of proteases, the abundance of proteins involved in the degradation of plant defensive barriers, and plenty of proteins with unknown function.

Analyses of genome architecture and gene expression reveal novel candidate virulence factors in the secretome of Phytophthora infestans

BACKGROUND

Phytophthora infestans is the most devastating pathogen of potato and a model organism for the oomycetes. It exhibits high evolutionary potential and rapidly adapts to host plants. The P. infestans genome experienced a repeat-driven expansion relative to the genomes of Phytophthora sojae and Phytophthora ramorum and shows a discontinuous distribution of gene density. Effector genes, such as members of the RXLR and Crinkler (CRN) families, localize to expanded, repeat-rich and gene-sparse regions of the genome. This distinct genomic environment is thought to contribute to genome plasticity and host adaptation.

RESULTS

We used in silico approaches to predict and describe the repertoire of P. infestans secreted proteins (the secretome). We defined the "plastic secretome" as a subset of the genome that (i) encodes predicted secreted proteins, (ii) is excluded from genome segments orthologous to the P. sojae and P. ramorum genomes and (iii) is encoded by genes residing in gene sparse regions of P. infestans genome. Although including only ~3% of P. infestans genes, the plastic secretome contains ~62% of known effector genes and shows >2 fold enrichment in genes induced in planta. We highlight 19 plastic secretome genes induced in planta but distinct from previously described effectors. This list includes a trypsin-like serine protease, secreted oxidoreductases, small cysteine-rich proteins and repeat containing proteins that we propose to be novel candidate virulence factors.

CONCLUSIONS

This work revealed a remarkably diverse plastic secretome. It illustrates the value of combining genome architecture with comparative genomics to identify novel candidate virulence factors from pathogen genomes.

Proteomics of plant pathogenic fungi

Plant pathogenic fungi cause important yield losses in crops. In order to develop efficient and environmental friendly crop protection strategies, molecular studies of the fungal biological cycle, virulence factors, and interaction with its host are necessary. For that reason, several approaches have been performed using both classical genetic, cell biology, and biochemistry and the modern, holistic, and high-throughput, omic techniques. This work briefly overviews the tools available for studying Plant Pathogenic Fungi and is amply focused on MS-based Proteomics analysis, based on original papers published up to December 2009. At a methodological level, different steps in a proteomic workflow experiment are discussed. Separate sections are devoted to fungal descriptive (intracellular, subcellular, extracellular) and differential expression proteomics and interactomics. From the work published we can conclude that Proteomics, in combination with other techniques, constitutes a powerful tool for providing important information about pathogenicity and virulence factors, thus opening up new possibilities for crop disease diagnosis and crop protection.