Rice false smut fungus hijacks the rice nutrients supply by blocking and mimicking the fertilization of rice ovary

Song, Jinhui; Wei, Wei; Lv, Bo; Lin, Yi Pu; Yin, Wei-Xiao; Peng, You-Liang; Schnabel, Guido; Huang, Junbin; Jiāng, Dàohóng; Luo, Chaoxi

doi:10.1111/1462-2920.13343

Cited by 69 publications

(81 citation statements)

References 26 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…During infection, U . virens interrupts the process of rice flowering and fertilization and hijacks host nutrients for mycelial growth and false smut ball formation (Fan et al ., ; Song et al ., ). False smut balls are covered with chlamydospores that become orange or green (Wang et al ., ) and generate sclerotia when exposed to large day/night temperature differences (Fan et al ., ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

The false smut pathogen Ustilaginoidea virens requires rice stamens for false smut ball formation

Fan

Liu

Gong

et al. 2019

Environmental Microbiology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Rice false smut has emerged as a serious grain disease in rice production worldwide. The disease is characterized by the transformation of individual rice florets into false smut balls, which is caused by the fungal pathogen Ustilaginoidea virens. To date, little is known about the host factors required for false smut ball formation by U. virens. In this study, we identified histological determinants for the formation of false smut balls by inoculating U. virens into rice floral mutants defective with respect to individual floral parts. The results showed that U. virens could form mature false smut balls in rice floral mutants with defective pistils, but failed to develop false smut balls in the superwoman mutant lacking stamens, identifying that U. virens requires rice stamens to complete its infection cycle. Comparative transcriptome analysis indicated a list of candidate host genes that may facilitate nutrient acquisition by U. virens from the rice stamens, such as SWEET11, SWEET14 and SUT5, and genes involved in the biosynthesis of trehalose and raffinose family sugars. These data pinpoint rice stamens as the key target organ of U. virens infection and provide a valuable starting point for dissecting the molecular mechanism of false smut ball formation. Received

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

The false smut pathogen Ustilaginoidea virens requires rice stamens for false smut ball formation

Fan

Liu

Gong

et al. 2019

Environmental Microbiology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For another treatment, the conidia were cultured in 50 ml of PSB at 27°C with shaking at 160 rpm for 8-12 h for germination, and then conidia were collected again and adjusted to 1.0×10 6 conidia/ml with PSB for inoculation. The inoculation was performed as described previously (Song et al 2016). In brief, approximately 2 ml of each conidia (1.0×10 6 conidia/ml) suspension in PSB was injected into a single rice panicle at the late booting stage.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some studies have indicated that U. virens can infect roots and other rice tissues (Andargie 2015; Tang et al 2017; Zheng et al 2016). Nevertheless, numerous inoculation experiments and studies have shown that the majority of U. virens infections occur at the booting stage (Fu et al 2012; Song et al 2016; Tang et al 2013; Yong et al 2016). Conidia germinate and enter spikelets through the gap between the lemma and palea (Ashizawa et al 2012), after that U. virens hyphae enter and grow intercellularly in the filaments of rice florets during the early stages of infection (Hu et al 2014; Song et al 2016; Tang et al 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Conidia germinate and enter spikelets through the gap between the lemma and palea (Ashizawa et al 2012), after that U. virens hyphae enter and grow intercellularly in the filaments of rice florets during the early stages of infection (Hu et al 2014; Song et al 2016; Tang et al 2013). Subsequently, the hyphal growth extends to invade the stigmas and styles, enclosing the floral organs (Song et al 2016). Finally, the hyphal mass extrudes from the lemma and palea, developing into false smut balls.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Development of rice conidiation media for Ustilaginoidea virens

Wang

Xie

et al. 2019

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

27Rice false smut, caused by the ascomycete Ustilaginoidea virens, is a serious disease 28 of rice worldwide. Conidia are very important infectious propagules of U. virens, but 29 the ability of pathogenic isolates to produce conidia frequently decreases in culture, 30 which influences pathogenicity testing. Here, we developed tissue media with rice 31 leaves or panicles that stimulate conidiation of U. virens. Generally, rice leaf media 32 more effectively increased conidiation than panicle media, and certain non-filtered 33 tissue media were better than their filtered counterparts. Among the tested media, the 34 Indica rice leaf medium with 0.06 g/ml of Wanxian 98 leaf was most efficient for 35 inducing conidiation, and it was also usable for conidiation-defective isolates. 36 Although the conidia induced in rice tissue media were smaller, they were able to 37 germinate on potato sucrose agar medium and infect rice normally. This method 38 provides a foundation for the production of conidia in U. virens that will be widely 39 applied in the pathogenicity testing as well as in genetic analyses for false smut 40 resistance in rice cultivars. 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 52 Rice false smut (RFS), caused by the ascomycete Ustilaginoidea virens, has 53

show abstract

“…The pathogen can infect coleoptiles and roots at rice germination stage and spikelets at rice booting stage with artificial inoculation (Ikegami, 1963;TeBeest, 2010;Hu & Wang, 2012). Recently it is found that the pathogen dominantly attacked rice stamen filaments, and sometimes invaded lodicules (Hu et al, 2014;Song & Wei et al, 2016;Tang et al, 2013), that belong to a new type flower disease (Ngugi & Scherm, 2006). On the other hand, rice ovaries were also believed to be attacked (Li et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Villosiclava virensinfects specifically rice and barley stamen filaments due to the unique host cell walls

Yong

Fan

et al. 2016

Microsc. Res. Tech.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Rice false smut, caused by the fungal pathogen Villosiclava virens, is one of the most important rice diseases in the world. Previous studies reported that the pathogen has less number of cell wall-degraded genes and attacks dominantly rice stamen filaments and extends intercellularly. To reveal why the fungus infects plant stamen filaments, inoculation test on barley was carried out with the similar protocol to rice. The experimental results showed that the fungus could penetrate quickly into barley stamen filaments and extends both intracellularly and intercellularly, usually resulting in severe damage of the stamen filament tissues. It also attacked young barley lodicules and grew intercellularly by chance. The light microscopic observations found that the epidermal and cortex cells in barley stamen filaments arranged loosely with very thick cell walls and large cell gaps. Cellulose microfibrils in barley stamen filament cell walls arranged very sparsely so that the cell walls looked like transparent. The cell walls were very soft and flexible, and often folded. However, V. virens extended dominantly in the noncellulose regions and seemed never to degrade microfibrils in barley and rice cell walls. This suggested that the unique structures of rice and barley stamen filaments should be fit for their function of elongation in anthesis, and also endow with the susceptibility to the fungus, V. virens.

show abstract

Rice false smut fungus hijacks the rice nutrients supply by blocking and mimicking the fertilization of rice ovary

Cited by 69 publications

References 26 publications

The false smut pathogen Ustilaginoidea virens requires rice stamens for false smut ball formation

The false smut pathogen Ustilaginoidea virens requires rice stamens for false smut ball formation

Development of rice conidiation media for Ustilaginoidea virens

Villosiclava virensinfects specifically rice and barley stamen filaments due to the unique host cell walls

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About