Secondary metabolism and biotrophic lifestyle in the tomato pathogen Cladosporium fulvum.

Bibliographic Details
Title: Secondary metabolism and biotrophic lifestyle in the tomato pathogen Cladosporium fulvum.
Authors: Jérôme Collemare, Scott Griffiths, Yuichiro Iida, Mansoor Karimi Jashni, Evy Battaglia, Russell J Cox, Pierre J G M de Wit
Source: PLoS ONE, Vol 9, Iss 1, p e85877 (2014)
Publisher Information: Public Library of Science (PLoS), 2014.
Publication Year: 2014
Collection: LCC:Medicine
LCC:Science
Subject Terms: Medicine, Science
More Details: Cladosporium fulvum is a biotrophic fungal pathogen that causes leaf mould of tomato. Analysis of its genome suggested a high potential for production of secondary metabolites (SM), which might be harmful to plants and animals. Here, we have analysed in detail the predicted SM gene clusters of C. fulvum employing phylogenetic and comparative genomic approaches. Expression of the SM core genes was measured by RT-qrtPCR and produced SMs were determined by LC-MS and NMR analyses. The genome of C. fulvum contains six gene clusters that are conserved in other fungal species, which have undergone rearrangements and gene losses associated with the presence of transposable elements. Although being a biotroph, C. fulvum has the potential to produce elsinochrome and cercosporin toxins. However, the corresponding core genes are not expressed during infection of tomato. Only two core genes, PKS6 and NPS9, show high expression in planta, but both are significantly down regulated during colonization of the mesophyll tissue. In vitro SM profiling detected only one major compound that was identified as cladofulvin. PKS6 is likely involved in the production of this pigment because it is the only core gene significantly expressed under these conditions. Cladofulvin does not cause necrosis on Solanaceae plants and does not show any antimicrobial activity. In contrast to other biotrophic fungi that have a reduced SM production capacity, our studies on C. fulvum suggest that down-regulation of SM biosynthetic pathways might represent another mechanism associated with a biotrophic lifestyle.
Document Type: article
File Description: electronic resource
Language: English
ISSN: 1932-6203
Relation: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/24465762/?tool=EBI; https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0085877
Access URL: https://doaj.org/article/48ff6b5d693a4f878c3074fc20f46fa1
Accession Number: edsdoj.48ff6b5d693a4f878c3074fc20f46fa1
Database: Directory of Open Access Journals
More Details
ISSN:19326203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0085877
Published in:PLoS ONE
Language:English