Spray-induced gene silencing as a potential tool to control potato late blight disease

Abstract

Phytophthora infestans causes late blight disease on potato and tomato and is currently controlled by resistant cultivars or intensive fungicide spraying. Here, we investigated an alternative means for late blight control by spraying potato leaves with double-stranded RNAs (dsRNA) that target P. infestans genes that are essential for infection. Through confocal microscopy, we show that the sporangia of P. infestans expressing Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) can take up in vitro synthesized dsRNAs homologous to GFP directly from their surroundings, including leaves, which leads to the reduced relative expression of GFP. We further demonstrate the potential of spray induced gene silencing (SIGS) in controlling potato late blight disease by targeting developmentally important genes in P.infestans such as guanine-nucleotide binding (G) protein β-subunit (PiGPB1), haustorial membrane protein (PiHmp1), cutinase (PiCut3), and endo-1,3(4)-β-glucanase (PiEndo3). Our results demonstrate that SIGS can be potentially used to mitigate potato late blight; however, the degree of disease control is dependent on the selection of the target genes.

Comparative small RNA and degradome sequencing provide new insights into antagonistic interactions in the biocontrol fungus Clonostachys rosea

“…In addition to their endogenous role, specific sRNAs can travel between interacting species and regulate the function of recipient cells by hijacking their RNAi machinery (19,20). Furthermore, RNAi has recently been exploited to control plant pathogens by exogenous application of sRNAs targeting genes in pathogens essential for disease development by a process called spray-induced gene silencing (21)(22)(23) .…”