Summary• Parasitism and saprotrophic wood decay are two fungal strategies fundamental for succession and nutrient cycling in forest ecosystems. An opportunity to assess the trade-off between these strategies is provided by the forest pathogen and wood decayer Heterobasidion annosum sensu lato.• We report the annotated genome sequence and transcript profiling, as well as the quantitative trait loci mapping, of one member of the species complex: H. irregulare. Quantitative trait loci critical for pathogenicity, and rich in transposable elements, orphan and secreted genes, were identified.• A wide range of cellulose-degrading enzymes are expressed during wood decay. By contrast, pathogenic interaction between H. irregulare and pine engages fewer carbohydrate-active enzymes, but involves an increase in pectinolytic enzymes, transcription modules for oxidative stress and secondary metabolite production.• Our results show a trade-off in terms of constrained carbohydrate decomposition and membrane transport capacity during interaction with living hosts. Our findings establish that saprotrophic wood decay and necrotrophic parasitism involve two distinct, yet overlapping, processes.
Autophagy-related proteins Atg5 and Atg7 are rate-limiting components of autophagic flux in Arabidopsis. Overexpression of ATG5 or ATG7 genes stimulates Atg8 lipidation, autophagosome formation, and autophagic flux, leading to improved plant fitness.
We investigated two hypotheses for the origin of the root rot fungus Heterobasidion annosum species complex: (i) that geology has been an important factor for the speciation (ii) that co-evolutionary processes with the hosts drove the divergence of the pathogen species. The H. annosum species complex consists of five species: three occur in Europe, H. annosum s.s., Heterobasidion parviporum and Heterobasidion abietinum, and two in North America, Heterobasidion irregulare and Heterobasidion occidentale; all with different but partially overlapping host preferences. The evolution of the H. annosum species complex was studied using six partially sequenced genes, between 10 and 30 individuals of each species were analysed. Neighbour-joining trees were constructed for each gene, and a Bayesian tree was built for the combined data set. In addition, haplotype networks were constructed to illustrate the species relationships. For three of the genes, H. parviporum and H. abietinum share haplotypes supporting recent divergence and/or possible gene flow. We propose that the H. annosum species complex originated in Laurasia and that the H. annosum s.s./H. irregulare and H. parviporum/H. abietinum/H. occidentale ancestral species emerged between 45 and 60 Ma in the Palaearctic, well after the radiation of the host genera. Our data imply that H. irregulare and H. occidentale were colonizing North America via different routes. In conclusion, plate tectonics are likely to have been the main factor influencing Heterobasidion speciation and biogeography.
The dense single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) panels needed for genome wide association (GWA) studies have hitherto been expensive to establish and use on non-model organisms. To overcome this, we used a next generation sequencing approach to both establish SNPs and to determine genotypes. We conducted a GWA study on a fungal species, analysing the virulence of Heterobasidion annosum s.s., a necrotrophic pathogen, on its hosts Picea abies and Pinus sylvestris. From a set of 33,018 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in 23 haploid isolates, twelve SNP markers distributed on seven contigs were associated with virulence (P<0.0001). Four of the contigs harbour known virulence genes from other fungal pathogens and the remaining three harbour novel candidate genes. Two contigs link closely to virulence regions recognized previously by QTL mapping in the congeneric hybrid H. irregulare × H. occidentale. Our study demonstrates the efficiency of GWA studies for dissecting important complex traits of small populations of non-model haploid organisms with small genomes.
Transcription factors (TFs) forming MYB-bHLH-WDR complexes are known to regulate the biosynthesis of specialized metabolites in angiosperms through an intricate network. These specialized metabolites participate in a wide range of biological processes including plant growth, development, reproduction as well as in plant immunity. Studying the regulation of their biosynthesis is thus essential. While MYB (TFs) have been previously shown to control specialized metabolism (SM) in gymnosperms, the identity of their partners, in particular bHLH or WDR members, has not yet been revealed. To gain knowledge about MYB-bHLH-WDR transcription factor complexes in gymnosperms and their regulation of SW, we identified two bHLH homologs of AtTT8, six homologs of the MYB transcription factor AtTT2 and one WDR ortholog of AtTTG1 in Norway spruce. We investigated the expression levels of these genes in diverse tissues and upon treatments with various stimuli including methyl-salicylate, methyl-jasmonate, wounding or fungal inoculation. In addition, we also identified protein-protein interactions among different homologs of MYB, bHLH and WDR. Finally, we generated transgenic spruce cell lines overexpressing four of the Norway spruce AtTT2 homologs and observed differential regulation of genes in the flavonoid pathway and flavonoid contents.
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