Erasing the past: a new identity for the Damoclean pathogen causing South American leaf blight of rubber.

BACKGROUND: South American leaf blight (SALB) of rubber has been the main constraint to production in its neotropical centre of origin since commercial plantations were first established. The fungal causal agent was identified and described more than a century ago but its precise placement within the Ascomycota still remains uncertain. Indeed, such is the ambiguity surrounding the pathogen that each of the spore morphs would, according to their present classification, be placed in different ascomycete families: the Microcyclus sexual morph in the Planistromellaceae and the two purported asexual morphs--Fusicladium and Aposphaeria--in the Venturiaceae and Lophiostomataceae, respectively. Given the historical importance of the fungus and the ever-menacing threat that it poses to rubber production in the Palaeotropics--and, thus to the rubber industry and to the global economy--its phylogeny, as well as its biology, should be resolved as a matter of urgency. METHODS AND RESULTS: Here, six genomic regions (LSU rRNA, mtSSU, MCM7, EF-1α, Act and ITS) were used for reconstructing the molecular phylogeny of the SALB fungus based on material collected throughout Brazil. The analyses support the classification of the fungus in the family Mycosphaerellaceae s. str. (Capnodiales, Dothideomycetes) and place it firmly within the clade Pseudocercospora s. str., now accepted as one of the distinct genera within Mycosphaerellaceae. The new combination Pseudocercospora ulei is proposed and the life cycle of the fungus is confirmed, based on both experimental and phylogenetic evidence, with the Aposphaeria morph shown to have a spermatial rather than an infective-dispersal function. CONCLUSIONS: Because the phylogeny of the SALB fungus has now been clarified, new insights of its epidemiology and genomics can be gained following comparison with closely-related, better-researched crop pathogens.

Transcriptomics and systems biology analysis in identification of specific pathways involved in cacao resistance and susceptibility to witches' broom disease.

This study reports on expression analysis associated with molecular systems biology of cacao-Moniliophthora perniciosa interaction. Gene expression data were obtained for two cacao genotypes (TSH1188, resistant; Catongo, susceptible) challenged or not with the fungus M. perniciosa and collected at three time points through disease. Using expression analysis, we identified 154 and 227 genes that are differentially expressed in TSH1188 and Catongo, respectively. The expression of some of these genes was confirmed by RT-qPCR. Physical protein-protein interaction (PPPI) networks of Arabidopsis thaliana orthologous proteins corresponding to resistant and susceptible interactions were obtained followed by cluster and gene ontology analyses. The integrated analysis of gene expression and systems biology allowed designing a general scheme of major mechanisms associated with witches' broom disease resistance/susceptibility. In this sense, the TSH1188 cultivar shows strong production of ROS and elicitors at the beginning of the interaction with M. perniciosa followed by resistance signal propagation and ROS detoxification. On the other hand, the Catongo genotype displays defense mechanisms that include the synthesis of some defense molecules but without success in regards to elimination of the fungus. This phase is followed by the activation of protein metabolism which is achieved with the production of proteasome associated with autophagy as a precursor mechanism of PCD. This work also identifies candidate genes for further functional studies and for genetic mapping and marker assisted selection.