Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 397-407 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | Fungal biology |
| Volume | 123 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| Early online date | 27 Feb 2019 |
| Publication status | Published - May 2019 |
Abstract
Fungal secondary metabolites have important functions for the fungi that produce them, such as roles in virulence and competition. The hemibiotrophic pine needle pathogen Dothistroma septosporum has one of the lowest complements of secondary metabolite (SM) backbone genes of plant pathogenic fungi, indicating that this fungus produces a limited range of SMs. Amongst these SMs is dothistromin, a well-characterised polyketide toxin and virulence factor that is required for expansion of disease lesions in Dothistroma needle blight disease. Dothistromin genes are dispersed across six loci on one chromosome, rather than being clustered as for most SM genes. We explored other D. septosporum SM genes to determine if they are associated with gene clusters, and to predict what their likely products and functions might be. Of nine functional SM backbone genes in the D. septosporum genome, only four were expressed under a range of in planta and in culture conditions, one of which was the dothistromin PKS backbone gene. Of the other three expressed genes, gene knockout studies suggested that DsPks1 and DsPks2 are not required for virulence and attempts to determine a functional squalestatin-like SM product for DsPks2 were not successful. However preliminary evidence suggested that DsNps3, the only SM backbone gene to be most highly expressed in the early stage of disease, appears to be a virulence factor. Thus, despite the small number of SM backbone genes in D. septosporum, most of them appear to be poorly expressed or dispensable for virulence in planta. This work contributes to a growing body of evidence that many fungal secondary metabolite gene clusters might be non-functional and may be evolutionary relics.
Keywords
- Dothideomycete, Fungal gene cluster, Nonribosomal peptide, Polyketide, Secondary metabolite, Squalestatin
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Agricultural and Biological Sciences(all)
- Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
- Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology(all)
- Genetics
- Medicine(all)
- Infectious Diseases
Sustainable Development Goals
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In: Fungal biology, Vol. 123, No. 5, 05.2019, p. 397-407.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Evolutionary relics dominate the small number of secondary metabolism genes in the hemibiotrophic fungus Dothistroma septosporum
AU - Ozturk, I. Kutay
AU - Dupont, Pierre Yves
AU - Chettri, Pranav
AU - McDougal, Rebecca
AU - Böhl, Ole Jacob
AU - Cox, Russell John
AU - Bradshaw, Rosie E.
N1 - Funding information: This work was supported by Massey University and the Tertiary Education Commission (NZ) through the Bio-Protection Research Center. We acknowledge the assistance of Karen Lebe (University of Hannover) for the synthesis of benzoyl SNAC, and DFG (grant INST 187/621) for the provision of LCMS equipment, Matthew Savoian (Massey University) for SEM imaging, Carla Eaton (Massey University) and Scott Griffiths (Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute) for early project planning, Paul Maclean (AgResearch NZ) for bioinformatics, Austen Ganley and Margaret Coe (University of Auckland) for preliminary LCMS analysis.
PY - 2019/5
Y1 - 2019/5
N2 - Fungal secondary metabolites have important functions for the fungi that produce them, such as roles in virulence and competition. The hemibiotrophic pine needle pathogen Dothistroma septosporum has one of the lowest complements of secondary metabolite (SM) backbone genes of plant pathogenic fungi, indicating that this fungus produces a limited range of SMs. Amongst these SMs is dothistromin, a well-characterised polyketide toxin and virulence factor that is required for expansion of disease lesions in Dothistroma needle blight disease. Dothistromin genes are dispersed across six loci on one chromosome, rather than being clustered as for most SM genes. We explored other D. septosporum SM genes to determine if they are associated with gene clusters, and to predict what their likely products and functions might be. Of nine functional SM backbone genes in the D. septosporum genome, only four were expressed under a range of in planta and in culture conditions, one of which was the dothistromin PKS backbone gene. Of the other three expressed genes, gene knockout studies suggested that DsPks1 and DsPks2 are not required for virulence and attempts to determine a functional squalestatin-like SM product for DsPks2 were not successful. However preliminary evidence suggested that DsNps3, the only SM backbone gene to be most highly expressed in the early stage of disease, appears to be a virulence factor. Thus, despite the small number of SM backbone genes in D. septosporum, most of them appear to be poorly expressed or dispensable for virulence in planta. This work contributes to a growing body of evidence that many fungal secondary metabolite gene clusters might be non-functional and may be evolutionary relics.
AB - Fungal secondary metabolites have important functions for the fungi that produce them, such as roles in virulence and competition. The hemibiotrophic pine needle pathogen Dothistroma septosporum has one of the lowest complements of secondary metabolite (SM) backbone genes of plant pathogenic fungi, indicating that this fungus produces a limited range of SMs. Amongst these SMs is dothistromin, a well-characterised polyketide toxin and virulence factor that is required for expansion of disease lesions in Dothistroma needle blight disease. Dothistromin genes are dispersed across six loci on one chromosome, rather than being clustered as for most SM genes. We explored other D. septosporum SM genes to determine if they are associated with gene clusters, and to predict what their likely products and functions might be. Of nine functional SM backbone genes in the D. septosporum genome, only four were expressed under a range of in planta and in culture conditions, one of which was the dothistromin PKS backbone gene. Of the other three expressed genes, gene knockout studies suggested that DsPks1 and DsPks2 are not required for virulence and attempts to determine a functional squalestatin-like SM product for DsPks2 were not successful. However preliminary evidence suggested that DsNps3, the only SM backbone gene to be most highly expressed in the early stage of disease, appears to be a virulence factor. Thus, despite the small number of SM backbone genes in D. septosporum, most of them appear to be poorly expressed or dispensable for virulence in planta. This work contributes to a growing body of evidence that many fungal secondary metabolite gene clusters might be non-functional and may be evolutionary relics.
KW - Dothideomycete
KW - Fungal gene cluster
KW - Nonribosomal peptide
KW - Polyketide
KW - Secondary metabolite
KW - Squalestatin
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85062426648&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.funbio.2019.02.006
DO - 10.1016/j.funbio.2019.02.006
M3 - Article
C2 - 31053329
AN - SCOPUS:85062426648
VL - 123
SP - 397
EP - 407
JO - Fungal biology
JF - Fungal biology
SN - 1878-6146
IS - 5
ER -