Identification of genes related to chlamydospore formation in Clonostachys rosea 67‐1

Abstract

Chlamydospores are specific structures that are of great significance to the commercialization of fungal biopesticides. To explore the genes associated with chlamydospore formation, a biocontrol fungus Clonostachys rosea 67-1 that is capable of producing resistant spores under particular conditions was investigated by transcriptome sequencing and analysis. A total of 549,661,174 clean reads were obtained, and a series of differentially expressed genes potentially involved in fungal chlamydospore formation were identified. At 36 hr, 67 and 117 genes were up- and downregulated in C. rosea during chlamydospore production, compared with the control for conidiation, and 53 and 24 genes were up- and downregulated at 72 hr. GO classification suggested that the differentially expressed genes were related to cellular component, biological process, and molecular function categories. A total of 188 metabolism pathways were linked to chlamydospore production by KEGG analysis. Sixteen differentially expressed genes were verified by reverse transcription quantitative PCR, and the expression profiles were consistent with the transcriptome data. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first report on the genes associated with chlamydospore formation in C. rosea. The results provide insight into the molecular mechanisms underlying C. rosea sporulation, which will assist the development of fungal biocontrol agents.

Biology and applications of Clonostachys rosea

“…To date, several mycoparasites, such as Trichoderma sp., Clonostachys sp., Coniothyrium sp., Stachybotrys sp. and Phoma sp., show biological control activity against fungal plant pathogens (Sullivan and White 2000; Cao et al 2009; Hamid et al 2013; Sun et al 2018; Park et al 2019). In addition, Trichoderma sp.…”

Morphological identification of Ilyonectria liriodendri and its interaction with plant growth-promoting bacteria in grapevine rootstocks

“…The absence of this circumstance can be observed by the discrete presence of resistance spores, or chlamydospores, produced by the phytopathogen during the characterization of the isolated monosporic 2T-VSC-101. These more resistant structures indicate adverse conditions because they are produced in aggressive environments, such as low temperatures, unfavorable pH and nutrient deficiency (SUN et al, 2019). Moreover, detected variation in the virulence among isolates of pathogenic fungi related to the black foot disease of the vine, reporting that the phytopathogen Ilyonectria liriodendri was less virulent among the species studied.…”

Cell Wall Biogenesis Protein Phosphatase CrSsd1 Is Required for Conidiation, Cell Wall Integrity, and Mycoparasitism in Clonostachys rosea

“…In our current study, ΔCrSsd1 deletion mutants exhibited reduced hyphal growth, suggesting diverse functions for CrSsd1 in different fungal pathogens. The ΔCrSsd1 strain also showed a significant reduction in conidiation, which plays important roles in the completion of the fungal life cycle, and the ability to produce conidia is essential for successful colonization and mycoparasitism (Iqbal et al, 2019;Kong et al, 2019;Sun et al, 2019b). These phenotypes indicate that CrSsd1 is required for vegetative growth and asexual reproduction.…”