Functional analysis of the β₂‐tubulin gene of Fusariumgraminearum and the β‐tubulin gene of Botrytiscinerea by homologous replacement

Abstract

The B. cinerea β-tubulin (Bctub) could complement the function of the two F. graminearum β-tubulins even when both were deleted. Expression of the β-tubulin conferring carbendazim resistance differs between pathogenic fungi.

Molecular evolution and functional divergence of tubulin superfamily in the fungal tree of life

“…5A). These results showed that FgTUB1 and FgTUB2 differ significantly in their functions during sexual reproduction, which was not reported in the previous study15. Overall, it appears that FgTUB1 plays an essential role in sexual development but FgTUB2 is more important for vegetative growth, confirming that functional divergence occurred between these two β-tubulin genes in F. graminearum .…”

“…Previous studies showed that, of the two β-tubulin genes, mutations in FgTUB2 but not in FgTUB1 have been shown to confer resistance to benomyl or MBC fungicides12. Furthermore, the two β-tubulin genes differ in their functions in hyphal growth15. To investigate the functional divergence of these two β-tubulin genes in F. graminearum , we then identified their orthologs in other sequenced Fusarium species.…”

“…Green and red branches indicate β 2 - and β 1 -tubulins of basidiomycetes, respectively. The tubulin genes highlighted in yellow have been functionally characterized in previous studies1215. For abbreviations, see supplementary Fig.…”

“…In the model filamentous fungus A. nidulans , the two α-tubulin genes, tubA and tubB , are functionally interchangeable but deletions of these two genes results in different phenotypes14. Two β-tubulin genes with different roles in hyphal growth and fungicide resistance also have been characterized in the wheat scab fungus F. graminearum 15. These observations suggest that tubulin genes seem to undergo functional divergence after gene duplication events in different fungi.…”

Baseline sensitivity of Botrytis cinerea to fluazinam and cross‐resistance

“…B. cinerea has many ways of attacking hosts with mycelia, conidia or sclerotia can infect not only the leaves, stems and flowers, but also the fruits of plants, resulting in a huge decrease in yield, especially in commercial greenhouse tomato (Liu, Che, & Chen, ; Williamson et al, ). In agricultural production, the chemical control of grey mould is the primary method and it uses fungicides such as the benzimidazole fungicide (carbendazim), dicarboximide fungicide (procymidone), anilinopyrimidine fungicide (pyrimethanil) and succinate dehydrogenase inhibitor (SDHI) fungicide (boscalid) (Banno et al, ; Cong, He, Ma, Li, & Zhu, ; Duan et al, ; Fernandez‐Ortuno et al, ; Leroux, Chapeland, Desbrosses, & Gredt, ; Liu et al, ; Liu, Duan, Ge, Chen, & Zhou, ; Rosslenbroich & Stuebler, ; Zhang et al, ). In recent years, due to the long‐term use of these selective fungicides for the control of genetically variable B. cinerea , fungicides resistance and multiple resistance of B. cinerea have become rampant, resulting in a decline or failure in field control efficacy (Adnan, Hamada, Li, & Luo, ; Cosseboom, Ivors, Schnabel, Bryson, & Holmes, ; Fan, Hamada, Li, Li, & Luo, ; Fernandez‐Ortuno et al, ; Liu et al, , ; Ma & Michailides, ; Ma, Yan, Luo, & Michailides, ; Malandrakis, Markoglou, & Ziogas, ; Moyano, Gómez, & Melgarejo, ; Oshima et al, ; Qiu et al, , ; Sun et al, ).…”