Calcium/Calmodulin-Dependent Signaling for Prepenetration Development in Colletotrichum gloeosporioides

Role of the cAMP signaling pathway in the dissemination and development on pepper fruit anthracnose disease caused by Colletotrichum scovillei

The ascomycete fungus Colletotrichum scovillei causes severe anthracnose disease on the fruit of sweet pepper and chili pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) worldwide. Understanding the biology of C. scovillei would improve the management of fruit anthracnose diseases. The cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) signaling pathway regulates diverse cellular and physiological processes in several foliar fungal pathogens. We investigated the roles of the cAMP signaling pathway in C. scovillei using pharmaceutical and genetic approaches. Exogenous cAMP was found to increase conidiation, appressorium formation, and anthracnose disease development in C. scovillei. CsAc1, CsCap1, and CsPdeH, which regulate the intracellular cAMP level, were deleted by homology-dependent gene replacement. Expectedly, the intracellular cAMP level was significantly decreased in ΔCsac1 and ΔCscap1 but increased in ΔCspdeh. All three deletion mutants exhibited serious defects in multiple fungal developments and pathogenicity, suggesting regulation of the intracellular cAMP level is important for C. scovillei. Notably, exogenous cAMP recovered the defect of ΔCsac1 in appressorium development, but not penetration, which was further recovered by adding CaCl2. This result suggests that CsAc1 is associated with both the cAMP and Ca2+ signaling pathways in C. scovillei. ΔCscap1 produced morphologically abnormal conidia with reduced tolerance to thermal stress. ΔCspdeh was completely defective in conidiation in C. scovillei, unlike other foliar pathogens. Taken together, these results demonstrate the importance of cAMP signaling in anthracnose disease caused by C. scovillei.

CgEnd3 Regulates Endocytosis, Appressorium Formation, and Virulence in the Poplar Anthracnose Fungus Colletotrichum gloeosporioides

The hemibiotrophic ascomycete fungus Colletotrichum gloeosporioides is the causal agent of anthracnose on numerous plants, and it causes considerable economic losses worldwide. Endocytosis is an essential cellular process in eukaryotic cells, but its roles in C. gloeosporioides remain unknown. In our study, we identified an endocytosis-related protein, CgEnd3, and knocked it out via polyethylene glycol (PEG)-mediated protoplast transformation. The lack of CgEnd3 resulted in severe defects in endocytosis. C. gloeosporioides infects its host through a specialized structure called appressorium, and ΔCgEnd3 showed deficient appressorium formation, melanization, turgor pressure accumulation, penetration ability of appressorium, cellophane membrane penetration, and pathogenicity. CgEnd3 also affected oxidant adaptation and the expression of core effectors during the early stage of infection. CgEnd3 contains one EF hand domain and four calcium ion-binding sites, and it is involved in calcium signaling. A lack of CgEnd3 changed the responses to cell-wall integrity agents and fungicide fludioxonil. However, CgEnd3 regulated appressorium formation and endocytosis in a calcium signaling-independent manner. Taken together, these results demonstrate that CgEnd3 plays pleiotropic roles in endocytosis, calcium signaling, cell-wall integrity, appressorium formation, penetration, and pathogenicity in C. gloeosporioides, and it suggests that CgEnd3 or endocytosis-related genes function as promising antifungal targets.

Habitat type and interannual variation shape unique fungal pathogen communities on a California native bunchgrass

The role of infectious disease in regulating host populations is increasingly recognized, but how environmental conditions affect pathogen communities and infection levels remains poorly understood. Over 3 y, we compared foliar disease burden, fungal pathogen community composition, and foliar chemistry in the perennial bunchgrass Stipa pulchra occurring in adjacent serpentine and nonserpentine grassland habitats with distinct soil types and plant communities. We found that serpentine and nonserpentine S. pulchra experienced consistent, low disease pressure associated with distinct fungal pathogen communities with high interannual species turnover. Additionally, plant chemistry differed with habitat type. The results indicate that this species experiences minimal foliar disease associated with diverse fungal communities that are structured across landscapes by spatially and temporally variable conditions. Distinct fungal communities associated with different growing conditions may shield S. pulchra from large disease outbreaks, contributing to the low disease burden observed on this and other Mediterranean grassland species.

Phospholipase C From Alternaria alternata Is Induced by Physiochemical Cues on the Pear Fruit Surface That Dictate Infection Structure Differentiation and Pathogenicity

To investigate the mechanisms of phospholipase C (PLC)-mediated calcium (Ca²⁺) signaling in Alternaria alternata, the regulatory roles of PLC were elucidated using neomycin, a specific inhibitor of PLC activity. Three isotypes of PLC designated AaPLC1, AaPLC2, and AaPLC3 were identified in A. alternata through genome sequencing. qRT-PCR analysis showed that fruit wax extracts significantly upregulated the expression of all three PLC genes in vitro. Pharmacological experiments showed that neomycin treatment led to a dose-dependent reduction in spore germination and appressorium formation in A. alternata. Appressorium formation was stimulated on hydrophobic and pear wax-coated surfaces but was significantly inhibited by neomycin treatment. The appressorium formation rates of neomycin treated A. alternata on hydrophobic and wax-coated surfaces decreased by 86.6 and 47.4%, respectively. After 4 h of treatment, exogenous CaCl₂ could partially reverse the effects of neomycin treatment. Neomycin also affected mycotoxin production in alternariol (AOH), alternariol monomethyl ether (AME), altenuene (ALT), and tentoxin (TEN), with exogenous Ca²⁺ partially reversing these effects. These results suggest that PLC is required for the growth, infection structure differentiation, and secondary metabolism of A. alternata in response to physiochemical signals on the pear fruit surface.

Do extreme environments provide a refuge from pathogens? A phylogenetic test using serpentine flax

Abiotically extreme environments are often associated with physiologically stressful conditions, small, low-density populations, and depauperate flora and fauna relative to more benign settings. A possible consequence of this may be that organisms that occupy these stressful habitats receive fitness benefits associated with reductions in the frequency and/or intensity of antagonistic species interactions. I investigated a particular form of this effect, formalized as the "pathogen refuge hypothesis," through a study of 13 species of wild flax that grow on stressful serpentine soils and are often infected by a pathogenic fungal rust. The host species vary in the degree of their serpentine association: some specialize on extreme serpentine soils, while others are generalists that occur on soils with a wide range of serpentine influence. Phylogenetically explicit analyses of soil chemistry and field-measured disease levels indicated that rust disease was significantly less frequent and severe in flax populations growing in more stressful, low-calcium serpentine soils. These findings may help to explain the persistence of extremophile species in habitats where stressful physical conditions often impose strong autecological fitness costs on associated organisms. Ancestral state reconstruction of serpentine soil tolerance (approximated using soil calcium concentrations) suggested that the ability to tolerate extreme serpentine soils may have evolved multiple times within the focal genus.

Botrytis cinerea isolates collected from grapes present different requirements for conidia germination

Botrytis cinerea presents high variability in several biological traits, which can be explained by the high degree of genotypic diversity among isolates. Because this genetic variability might be related to phenotypic differences the requirements for conidia germination of three natural isolates (G1, G5 and G11) obtained from grapes and belonging to the same genetic group were analyzed. The results showed that contact with a solid surface was a common requisite for conidia germination of the isolates but they differed in their nutritional requirements to germinate. Isolate G11 was able to germinate in the absence of a carbon or nitrogen source. G1 and G5 required the presence of a carbon source such as glucose, fructose or sucrose. In G11 and G5 isolates a much higher rate of germination was obtained in the presence of sucrose. It was shown with a pharmacological approach that the cAMP stimulated the germination only in those isolates requiring a carbon source. Conidia germination of G1 and G5 was inhibited by EGTA, a calcium chelator. Isolate G11 germinated in the presence of this compound. On the other hand the germination of three B. cinerea isolates required protein synthesis and did not require RNA synthesis. To explain the ability of isolate G11 to germinate in water the content of total and reducing sugars, mannitol/L-arabitol, trehalose, and proteins in the nongerminated conidia of the three isolates was compared. The isolates presented similar amounts of total and reducing sugars. In the three isolates the amount of mannitol/L-arabitol was higher than that of trehalose. In isolate G11 total protein content was twice higher than in the other isolates.

Kelch repeat protein Clakel2p and calcium signaling control appressorium development in Colletotrichum lagenarium

Kelch repeat proteins are important mediators of fundamental cellular functions and are found in diverse organisms. However, the roles of these proteins in filamentous fungi have not been characterized. We isolated a kelch repeat-encoding gene of Colletotrichum lagenarium ClaKEL2, a Schizosaccharomyces pombe tea1 homologue. Analysis of the clakel2 mutant indicated that ClaKEL2 was required for the establishment of cellular polarity essential for proper morphogenesis of appressoria and that there is a plant signal-specific bypass pathway for appressorium development which circumvents ClaKEL2 function. Clakel2p was localized in the polarized region of growing hyphae and germ tubes, and the localization was disturbed by a microtubule assembly blocker. The clakel2 mutants formed abnormal appressoria, and those appressoria were defective in penetration hypha development into cellulose membranes, an artificial model substrate for fungal infection. Surprisingly, the clakel2 mutants formed normal appressoria on the host plant and retained penetration ability. Normal appressorium formation on the artificial substrate by the clakel2 mutants was restored when cells were incubated in the presence of CaCl(2) or exudates from cucumber cotyledon. Furthermore, calcium channel modulators inhibited restoration of normal appressorium formation. These results suggest that there could be a bypass pathway that transduces a plant-derived signal for appressorium development independent of ClaKEL2 and that a calcium signal is involved in this transduction pathway.

Calcium Restores Prepenetration Morphogenesis Abolished by Methylglyoxal-Bis-Guanyl Hydrazone in Cochliobolus miyabeanus Infecting Rice

ABSTRACT Cochliobolus miyabeanus forms a specialized infection structure, an appressorium, to infect its host rice plants. Curtailment of prepenetration development by spermidine and spermine was more evident in appressorium development and germination remained unaffected, whereas putrescine and methylglyoxal-bis-guanyl hydrazone (MGBG) impaired both morphogenetic events. Exogenous calcium nullified the inhibitory effect of MGBG on the prepenetration development in vitro and in vivo and the disease progression. High levels of polyamines were detected in freshly collected conidia, but the amounts were reduced during germination and appressorium formation. MGBG fortified the decrease of polyamines within conidia under development and calcium amendment did not affect the reduction. Hard-surface contact augmented messenger RNA synthesis of calmodulin gene (CmCaM) and protein kinase C (PKC) activity in germinating or appressorium-forming conidia. Calcium restored transcription of CmCaM and upregulation of PKC activity suppressed by MGBG. Taken together, fine-tuning of intracellular polyamine transition is indispensable for the conidial germination and appressorium formation in C. miyabeanus. Biochemical and molecular analyses revealed that the MGBG-acting site or sites are upstream of Ca(2+)-dependent signaling pathways regulating prepenetration morphogenesis of C. miyabeanus causing rice brown leaf spot.

Biological control of apple blue mold withPseudomonas fluorescens

Pseudomonas fluorescens isolate 1100-6 was evaluated as a potential biological control agent for apple blue mold caused by Penicillium expansum or Penicillium solitum. Both the wild-type isolate 1100-6 and a genetically modified derivative labeled with the gene encoding the green fluorescent protein (GFP) were compared. The P. fluorescens isolates with or without GFP equally reduced the growth of Penicillium spp. and produced large zones of inhibition in dual culture plate assays. Cell-free metabolites produced by the bacterial antagonists reduced the colony area of Penicillium isolates by 17.3% to 78.5%. The effect of iron chelate on the antagonistic potential of P. fluorescens was also studied. The use of iron chelate did not have a major effect on the antagonistic activity of P. fluorescens. With or without GFP, P. fluorescens significantly reduced the severity and incidence of apple decay by 2 P. expansum isolates after 11 d at 20 °C and by P. expansum and P. solitum after 25 d at 5 °C when the biocontrol agents were applied in wounds 24 or 48 h before challenging with Penicillium spp. Populations of P. fluorescens labeled with the GFP were determined 1, 9, 14, and 20 d after inoculation at 5 °C. The log CFU/mL per wound increased from 6.95 at the time of inoculation to 9.12 CFU/mL (P < 0.05) 25 d after inoculation at 5 °C. The GFP strain did not appear to penetrate deeply into wounds based on digital photographs taken with an inverted fluorescence microscope. These results indicate that P. fluorescens isolate 1100-6 could be an important new biological control for apple blue mold.Key words: Penicillium expansum, P. solitum, postharvest disease, Malus, GFP.

Calcium restores prepenetration morphogenesis abolished by polyamines inColletotrichum gloeosporioidesinfecting red pepper

Colletotrichum gloeosporioides forms a specialized infection structure, an appressorium, to infect its host, red pepper. Polyamines (putrescine, spermidine, and spermine) as well as S-adenosyl methionine inhibitor, methylglyoxal-bis-guanyl hydrazone (MGBG), impaired conidial germination and appressorium formation of C. gloeosporioides. Curtailment of cell differentiation by polyamines and MGBG was more evident in conidial germination than in appressorium development. Exogenous addition of calcium restored conidial germination and appressorium formation and expression of calmodulin-encoding gene (CgCaM) inhibited by polyamines. Taken together, proper regulation of intracellular polyamine concentration is indispensable for conidial germination and appressorium formation, and involved in Ca(2+)/calmodulin-dependent signaling pathways of C. gloeosporioides infecting red pepper.