Comparative analyses of secreted proteins from the phytopathogenic fungus Verticillium dahliae in response to nitrogen starvation.

The soilborne fungus Verticillium dahliae is the major pathogen that causes the verticillium wilt disease of plants, which leads to huge economic loss worldwide. At the early stage of infection, growth of the pathogen is subject to the nutrition stress of limited nitrogen. To investigate the secreted pathogenic proteins that play indispensable roles during invasion at this stage, we compared the profiles of secreted proteins of V. dahliae under nitrogen starvation and normal conditions by using in-gel and in-solution digestion combined with liquid chromatography-nano-electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (LC-nanoESI-MS). In total, we identified 212 proteins from the supernatant of liquid medium, including 109 putative secreted proteins. Comparative analysis indicated that the expression of 76 proteins was induced, whereas that of 9 proteins was suppressed under nitrogen starvation. Notably, 24 proteins are constitutively expressed. Further bioinformatic exploration enabled us to classify the stress-induced proteins into seven functional groups: cell wall degradation (10.5%), reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging and stress response (11.8%), lipid effectors (5.3%), protein metabolism (21.1%), carbohydrate metabolism (15.8%), electron-proton transport and energy metabolism (14.5%), and other (21.0%). In addition, most stress-suppressed proteins are involved in the cell-wall remodeling. Taken together, our analyses provide insights into the pathogenesis of V. dahliae and might give hints for the development of novel strategy against the verticillium wilt disease.

Isolation and functional analysis of the pathogenicity-related gene VdPR3 from Verticillium dahliae on cotton.

The fungal plant pathogen Verticillium dahliae is the causal agent of vascular wilt, a disease that can seriously diminish cotton fiber yield. The pathogenicity mechanism and the identity of the genes that interact with cotton during the infection process still remain unclear. In this study, we investigated the low-pathogenic, non-microsclerotium-producing mutant vdpr3 obtained in a previous study from the screening of a T-DNA insertional library of the highly virulent isolate Vd080; the pathogenicity-related gene (VdPR3) in wild-type strain Vd080 was cloned. Knockout mutants (ΔVdPR3) showed lower mycelium growth and obvious reduction in sporulation ability without microsclerotium formation. An evaluation of carbon utilization in mutants and wild-type isolate Vd080 demonstrated that mutants-lacking VdPR3 exhibited decreased cellulase and amylase activities, which was restored in the complementary mutants (ΔVdPR3-C) to levels similar to those of Vd080. ΔVdPR3 postponed infectious events in cotton and showed a significant reduction in pathogenicity. Reintroduction of a functional VdPR3 copy into ΔVdPR3-C restored the ability to infect cotton plants. These results suggest that VdPR3 is a multifunctional gene involved in growth development, extracellular enzyme activity, and virulence of V. dahliae on cotton.

[Effects of transgenic cotton expressing chitinase and glucanase genes on the diversity of soil bacterial community].

The transgenic cotton expressing chitinase and glucanase genes was studied using nontransgenic cotton as a control. Specifically, the effects of exogenous genes on bacterial community diversity in rhizospheres of cotton at stages of seedling, budding, boll forming and boll opening were evaluated through comparing the number of cultivable bacteria and analyzing 16S rRNA gene clone libraries. The results showed that the number of cultivable bacteria was not affected by exogenous genes but the cotton growth period, and the number peaked at the stage of boll forming with vigorous metabolism. The 16S rRNA gene clone library prepared from soil bacteria in rhizospheres of transgenic and nontransgenic cotton at different stages contained 2400 clones which covered 283 genera. Among them, Acidobacterium was the most dominant group which contained 642 clones, followed by unclassified bacterium and Flavisolibacter. Compared with nontransgenic cotton, the rhizosphere bacterial diversity of transgenic cotton exhibited lower level at the same growth stage, however, their common bacterial communities increased with growth and development. Our results suggest that chitinase and glucanase genes decrease the rhizosphere bacterial diversity at distinct degrees, however, the difference of bacterial diversity between transgenic and nontransgenic cotton reduces gradually with the extension of cultivation period.

The endochitinase VDECH from Verticillium dahliae inhibits spore germination and activates plant defense responses.

Chitinases function in the digestion of chitin molecules, which are present principally in insects and fungi. In plants, chitinase genes play important roles in defense, and their expression can be triggered in response to both biotic and abiotic stresses. In this study, we cloned and characterized an endochitinase (VDECH) from Verticillium dahliae, strain Vd080. The VDECH coding region consists of 1845bp with two exons and one 54bp intron, encoding a 615 amino acid protein with the predicted molecular weight (MW) of 63.9kDa. The VDECH cDNA without signal peptide-encoding region was introduced into pCold-TF vector and the recombinant protein HIS-VDECH with a predicted MW of ∼114kDa was expressed. HIS-VDECH showed high tolerance to extreme temperature, exhibiting efficient chitinolytic activity at 50°C. In addition, VDECH triggered typical plant defense responses, including a hypersensitive response, oxidative burst, and elicited increased expression of defense-related genes in both Arabidopsis and cotton. VDECH-treatment of the conidial spores of V. dahliae and Fusarium oxysporum resulted in marked reductions in the germination of these spores in both fungi. After 36h of incubation with VDECH, the inhibition rate of germination was recorded at 99.57% for V. dahliae, and 96.89% for F. oxysporum. These results provide evidence that VDECH is recognized by the plant to elicit defense responses, and also that VDECH is an effective inhibitor of conidia germination, both of which may be exploited for disease control.

Functional Analysis of the Pathogenicity-Related Gene VdPR1 in the Vascular Wilt Fungus Verticillium dahliae.

Verticillium dahliae Kleb., the causal agent of vascular wilt, can seriously diminish the yield and quality of many crops, including cotton. The pathogenic mechanism to cotton is complicated and unclear now. To screen pathogencity related genes and identify their function is the reliable way to explain the mechanism. In this study, we obtained a low-pathogenicity mutant vdpr1 from a T-DNA insertional library of the highly virulent isolate of V. dahliae Vd080, isolated from cotton. The tagged gene was named pathogenicity-related gene (VdPR1). The deletion mutant ΔVdPR1 did not form microsclerotia and showed a drastic reduction in spore yield and mycelial growth, compared to wild type. Also, ΔVdPR1 showed significantly lower protease and cellulase activities than those of wild type. Complementation of the mutant strain with VdPR1 (strain ΔVdPR1-C) almost completely rescued the attributes described above to wild-type levels. The knockout mutant ΔVdPR1 showed delayed infection, caused mild disease symptoms, formed a smaller biomass in roots of the host, and showed compromised systemic invasive growth in the xylem. These results suggest that VdPR1 is a multifaceted gene involved in regulating the growth development, early infection and pathogenicity of V. dahliae.

VdCYC8, Encoding CYC8 Glucose Repression Mediator Protein, Is Required for Microsclerotia Formation and Full Virulence in Verticillium dahliae.

Verticillium dahliae is the primary causal agent for Verticillium wilt disease on a diverse array of economically important crops, including cotton. In previous research, we obtained the low-pathogenicity mutant T286 from the T-DNA insertional mutant library of the highly virulent isolate Vd080 derived from cotton. In this study, the target disrupted gene VdCYC8 was identified by TAIL-PCR, encoding a homolog of CYC8 proteins involved in glucose repression. The deletion mutant ΔCYC8 exhibited several developmental deficiencies, including reduced microsclerotia formation, reduced sporulation, and slower growth. Moreover, compared with the wild type strain Vd080, the pathogenicity of strain ΔCYC8 was significantly decreased on cotton seedlings. However, the complementary mutants ΔCYC8-C led to restoration of the wild type phenotype or near wild type levels of virulence on cotton. Interestingly, pathogenicity of the strains was correlated with VdCYC8 gene expression levels in complemented mutants. Gene expression analyses in the wild type strain Vd080, the ΔCYC8-45 strain, and complemented strain ΔCYC8-C26 indicated that VdCYC8 regulates the transcription levels of several genes in V. dahliae that have roles in melanin and production.

Diversity of endophytic fungi from different Verticillium-wilt-resistant Gossypium hirsutum and evaluation of antifungal activity against Verticillium dahliae in vitro.

Cotton plants were sampled and ranked according to their resistance to Verticillium wilt. In total, 642 endophytic fungi isolates representing 27 genera were recovered from Gossypium hirsutum root, stem, and leaf tissues, but were not uniformly distributed. More endophytic fungi appeared in the leaf (391) compared with the root (140) and stem (111) sections. However, no significant difference in the abundance of isolated endophytes was found among resistant cotton varieties. Alternaria exhibited the highest colonization frequency (7.9%), followed by Acremonium (6.6%) and Penicillium (4.8%). Unlike tolerant varieties, resistant and susceptible ones had similar endophytic fungal population compositions. In three Verticillium-wilt-resistant cotton varieties, fungal endophytes from the genus Alternaria were most frequently isolated, followed by Gibberella and Penicillium. The maximum concentration of dominant endophytic fungi was observed in leaf tissues (0.1797). The evenness of stem tissue endophytic communities (0.702) was comparatively more uniform than the other two tissues. Eighty endophytic fungi selected from 27 genera were evaluated for their inhibition activity against highly virulent Verticillium dahliae isolate Vd080 in vitro. Thirty-nine isolates exhibited fungistasis against the pathogen at varying degrees. Seven species, having high growth inhibition rates (≥75%), exhibited strong antifungal activity against V. dahliae. The antifungal activity of both volatile and nonvolatile metabolites was also investigated. The nonvolatile substances produced by CEF-818 (Penicillium simplicissimum), CEF-325 (Fusarium solani), CEF-714 (Leptosphaeria sp.), and CEF-642 (Talaromyces flavus) completely inhibited V. dahliae growth. These findings deepen our understanding of cotton-endophyte interactions and provide a platform for screening G. hirsutum endophytes with biocontrol potential.