Molecular cloning and characterization of an up-regulated UDP-glucosyltransferase gene induced by DON from Triticum aestivum L. cv. Wangshuibai

Abstract

Fusarium head blight, also called scab, is a serious disease of small grain cereals and maize. Scab can not only cause yield loss, more seriously is that it can also deteriorate seed quality by contaminating the infected grains with trichothecenes toxins harmful to human and animal health. Deoxynivalenol (DON) is one of the most important toxin members. It was proposed that DON acted first as a virulence factor during fungal pathogenesis and then accumulated in grain to levels posing a threat to human and animal health. In the present research, by expression analysis of DON-induced samples using GeneChip Wheat Genome Array ( http://www.affymetrix.com/products/arrays/specific/wheat.affx ), a DON-resistance related gene TaUGT3 (GenBank accession FJ236328) was cloned and characterized from a scab resistant wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) variety Wangshuibai. The full-length cDNA of TaUGT3 was 1,755 bp and contained a putative open reading frame (ORF) with 496 amino acids encoding a UDP-glucosyltransferase (UGT). TaUGT3 showed high similarity in amino acid level with DOGT1 gene in Arabidopsis, which is able to detoxify DON. TaUGT3 was located on the group 3 chromosomes of wheat using nulli-tetrasomic lines and deletion lines of Chinese Spring. Co-transformed of TaUGT3 with GFP genes to onion epidermis cells using transient transformation technique by microprojectile bombardment indicated the subcellular location of the protein encoded by TaUGT3 was in the plasma membrane and nuclear. Transformation and overexpression of the TaUGT3 gene in Arabidopsis could enhance tolerance against DON.

A Brachypodium UDP-Glycosyltransferase Confers Root Tolerance to Deoxynivalenol and Resistance to Fusarium Infection

“…4). Previous studies on wheat and barley have established that genes encoding UGTs are up-regulated following fungal infection (Lemmens et al, 2005;Boddu et al, 2007;Gottwald et al, 2012) or DON application (Gardiner et al, 2010;Lulin et al, 2010). However, in several transcriptomic studies, overall differences in gene expression were partly due to their different genetic backgrounds between FHBresistant and -susceptible lines rather than differences in specific resistance loci (Jia et al, 2009).…”

“…This reaction is catalyzed by UDPglucosyltransferases (UGT) that are encoded by the multigene family 1 of glycosyltransferases in plants (Ross et al, 2001). These enzymes mediate the transfer of glycosyl residues from nucleotide sugars to acceptor aglycones, thus regulating properties of the acceptors such as their bioactivity, water solubility, and transport within the cell and throughout the organism (Gachon et al, 2005 Poppenberger et al, 2003), barley (Hv13248; Schweiger et al, 2010;Shin et al, 2012), wheat (TaUGT3 [Lulin et al, 2010] and TaUGT12887 [Schweiger et al, 2013b]), and Brachypodium distachyon (Bradi5g03300; Schweiger et al, 2013a). Conjugation of DON into D3G by the corresponding UGTs was only shown in heterologous species, such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Schweiger et al, 2010(Schweiger et al, , 2013a(Schweiger et al, , 2013b, Arabidopsis (Poppenberger et al, 2003;Shin et al, 2012), or wheat (Li et al, 2015).…”

Pathogenesis-associated transcriptional patterns in Triticeae

“…Among the significantly up-regulated genes was a group of glycosyltransferases. Heterologous overexpression of the UDP-glucosyltransferase TaUGT3 in Arabidopsis thaliana increased the resistance of plants to toxic effects of DON when compared to wild type Arabidopsis plants (Lulin et al, 2010). In contrast, heterologous expression of TaUGT3 in yeast did not confer DON resistance, whereas expression of one (HvUGT13248) of four candidate barley UGT genes did and led to formation of DON-3-O-glucoside (Schweiger et al, 2010).…”

“…Because Fhb1 confers resistance to DON by enhancing the ability to detoxify this mycotoxin, these genes, including an UDP-glucosyltransferase, putatively contribute to neutralisation of the toxin effector. Lulin et al (2010) used the GeneChip Wheat Genome Array to discover differentially expressed genes induced by DON. The study compared the transcriptional patterns of either mock-or DON-inoculated spikes of the FHB-resistant wheat cv.…”

Deoxynivalenol resistance as a component of FHB resistance

“…This discovery was a major breakthrough with regard to advancing DON detoxification strategies and it stimulated the search for cereal UGTs that had the same biochemical potential. A wheat UGT similar to DOGT1, TaUGT3, could enhance DON tolerance when expressed in Arabidopsis (Lulin et al 2010). Wheat UGT gene TaUGT12887 provided weak DON tolerance when expressed in a toxin sensitive yeast strain (Schweiger et al 2013b).…”