Functional evaluation of a homologue of plant rapid alkalinisation factor (RALF) peptides in Fusarium graminearum

A - Papers appearing in refereed journals

Machado, A., Walker, C., Lee, W., Urban, M. and Hammond-Kosack, K. E. 2020. Functional evaluation of a homologue of plant rapid alkalinisation factor (RALF) peptides in Fusarium graminearum . Fungal Biology. 124 (9), pp. 753-765. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.funbio.2020.05.001

AuthorsMachado, A., Walker, C., Lee, W., Urban, M. and Hammond-Kosack, K. E.
Abstract

The cereal infecting fungus Fusarium graminearum is predicted to possess a single homologue of plant RALF peptides. Fusarium mutant strains lacking FgRALF were generated and found to exhibit wildtype virulence on wheat and Arabidopsis floral tissue. Arabidopsis lines constitutively overexpressing FgRALF, exhibited no obvious morphological or developmental changes, or change in susceptibility to F. graminearum leaf infection. In contrast transient virus-mediated over-expression (VOX) of FgRALF in wheat prior to F. graminearum infection, slightly increased the rate of fungal colonisation of floral tissue. Ten putative Feronia (FER) receptors of RALF peptide were identified bioinformatically in hexaploid wheat (Triticum aestivum). Transient silencing of two wheat FER homoeologous genes prior to F. graminearum inoculation did not alter the subsequent interaction outcome. Collectively, our VOX results show that the fungal RALF peptide may be a minor contributor in F. graminearum virulence but results from fungal gene deletion experiments indicate potential functional redundancy within the F. graminearum genome. We demonstrate that virus-mediated over-expression is a useful tool to provide novel information about gene/protein function when results from gene deletion/disruption experimentation were uninformative.

KeywordsRapid alkalinisation factor; RALF; Triticum aestivum; Arabidopsis; Fusarium head blight; Fungal infection; Virus-induced gene silencing; Barley Stripe Mosaic Virus ; Virus-mediated over-expression
Year of Publication2020
JournalFungal Biology
Journal citation124 (9), pp. 753-765
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1016/j.funbio.2020.05.001
Open accessPublished as ‘gold’ (paid) open access
FunderBiotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
Funder project or codeDesigning Future Wheat (DFW) [ISPG]
Publisher's version
Accepted author manuscript
Output statusPublished
Publication dates
Online16 Jun 2020
Publication process dates
Accepted12 May 2020
PublisherElsevier Sci Ltd
ISSN1878-6146

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