TY - JOUR

T1 - The velvet protein Vel1 controls initial plant root colonization and conidia formation for xylem distribution in Verticillium wilt

AU - Hoefer, Annalena M.

AU - Harting, Rebekka

AU - Assmann, Nils F.

AU - Gerke, Jennifer

AU - Schmitt, Kerstin

AU - Starke, Jessica

AU - Bayram, Özgür

AU - Tran, Van-Tuan

AU - Valerius, Oliver

AU - Braus-Stromeyer, Susanna A.

AU - Braus, Gerhard H.

N1 - Funding Information: This work was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG BR1502-15-1 to GHB). LCMS for metabolite analysis was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (INST 186/ 1287-1 FUGG). JS was funded by the IRTG 2172 ?PRoTECT? program of the G?ttingen Graduate Center of Neurosciences, Biophysics, and Molecular Biosciences. The authors thank the Service Unit LCMS Protein Analytics of the G?ttingen Center for Molecular Biosciences (GZMB) at the University of G?ttingen (Grant DFG-GZ: INST 186/1230-1 FUGG) for LC/MS analysis. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The authors thank Nicole Scheiter for technical assistance, Kai Heimel for discussions and space for plant experiments as well as Miriam Leonard, Alexandra Nagel, Isabel Maurus and Tri-Thuc Bui for support. Furthermore, we thank Cindy Meister and Anna M. K?hler for discussions and helpful advices regarding protein pull-downs and Sabine Thieme for fruitful discussions about the intrinsically disordered domain of VelB.

PY - 2021/3/15

Y1 - 2021/3/15

N2 - The conserved fungal velvet family regulatory proteins link development and secondary metabolite production. The velvet domain for DNA binding and dimerization is similar to the structure of the Rel homology domain of the mammalian NF-κB transcription factor. A comprehensive study addressed the functions of all four homologs of velvet domain encoding genes in the fungal life cycle of the soil-borne plant pathogenic fungus Verticillium dahliae. Genetic, cell biological, proteomic and metabolomic analyses of Vel1, Vel2, Vel3 and Vos1 were combined with plant pathogenicity experiments. Different phases of fungal growth, development and pathogenicity require V. dahliae velvet proteins, including Vel1-Vel2, Vel2-Vos1 and Vel3-Vos1 heterodimers, which are already present during vegetative hyphal growth. The major novel finding of this study is that Vel1 is necessary for initial plant root colonization and together with Vel3 for propagation in planta by conidiation. Vel1 is needed for disease symptom induction in tomato. Vel1, Vel2, and Vel3 control the formation of microsclerotia in senescent plants. Vel1 is the most important among all four V. dahliae velvet proteins with a wide variety of functions during all phases of the fungal life cycle in as well as ex planta.

AB - The conserved fungal velvet family regulatory proteins link development and secondary metabolite production. The velvet domain for DNA binding and dimerization is similar to the structure of the Rel homology domain of the mammalian NF-κB transcription factor. A comprehensive study addressed the functions of all four homologs of velvet domain encoding genes in the fungal life cycle of the soil-borne plant pathogenic fungus Verticillium dahliae. Genetic, cell biological, proteomic and metabolomic analyses of Vel1, Vel2, Vel3 and Vos1 were combined with plant pathogenicity experiments. Different phases of fungal growth, development and pathogenicity require V. dahliae velvet proteins, including Vel1-Vel2, Vel2-Vos1 and Vel3-Vos1 heterodimers, which are already present during vegetative hyphal growth. The major novel finding of this study is that Vel1 is necessary for initial plant root colonization and together with Vel3 for propagation in planta by conidiation. Vel1 is needed for disease symptom induction in tomato. Vel1, Vel2, and Vel3 control the formation of microsclerotia in senescent plants. Vel1 is the most important among all four V. dahliae velvet proteins with a wide variety of functions during all phases of the fungal life cycle in as well as ex planta.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85102631124&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1371/journal.pgen.1009434

DO - 10.1371/journal.pgen.1009434

M3 - Article

VL - 17

JO - PLoS Genetics

JF - PLoS Genetics

SN - 1553-7404

IS - 3

M1 - e1009434

ER -