Alternative splicing and genetic diversity of the white collar-1 (wc-1) gene in cereal Phaeosphaeria pathogens

Abstract

The white collar-1 (wc-1) gene encodes an important light-responsive protein (wc-1) that maintains circadian clocks and controls numerous light-dependent reactions including sporulation in ascomycete fungi. The structure and expression of the wc-1 gene in wheat-biotype Phaeosphaeria nodorum (PN-w) was studied. It was shown that the full-size (3,353 bp in length) wc-1 gene in PN-w contained 4 introns in which introns 1 and 2 were flanked by GC-AG splice borders and were spliced constitutively. However, introns 3 and 4 of the wc-1 gene were alternatively spliced. As the result of alternative splicing (AS), six transcript variants were identified, encoding different lengths of deduced polypeptides (from 1,044 to 1,065aa). Ratios of the wc-1 gene transcript variants in the RNA population were the same in the sporulated and non-sporulated PN-w isolate Sn37-1 and the sporulated PN-w isolate S-79-1, grown under light/dark conditions. The AS of the wc-1 gene may control various light-dependent reactions in PN-w, which leads to diverse morphological, physiological and pathological characters for pathogen infection and spread. Based on the nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequences, the wc-1 gene in cereal Phaeosphaeria pathogens was diverse. It appeared that the deduced wc-1 polypeptide sequences of P. avenaria f. sp. avenaria (Paa), P. avenaria f. sp. triticea (Pat1 and Pat3) and barley biotype P. nodorum (PN-b) were more closely related than PN-w and Phaeosphaeeria sp. (P-rye) from Poland. Based on the wc-1 deduced polypeptide sequences, P. avenaria f. sp. triticea (Pat2) from foxtail barley (Hordeum jubatum L.) was evolutionary well separated from the other cereal Phaeosphaeria pathogens

A Silent Exonic Mutation in a Rice Integrin-α FG-GAP Repeat-Containing Gene Causes Male-Sterility by Affecting mRNA Splicing

“…Among them, we found a non-canonical 5 -GC type, by which the 5 border of the fourth intron in pl1.4 was demarcated ( Figure 3C and Figure S5). This suggests that the 5 -GC boundaries in the splice donor sites may also ensure the constitutive pre-mRNA splicing in rice, similar to results in other eukaryote species [77][78][79].…”

Lessons on fruiting body morphogenesis from genomes and transcriptomes of Agaricomycetes

“…For example, alternative splicing of the blue light receptor wc-1 gene was observed in Phaeosphaeria spp . and it was hypothesized that alternative splicing (AS) may control various light-dependent reactions ( Chiu et al 2010 ). In Neurospora wc-1 transcription is controlled by multiple distinct cis-regulatory regions (termed different promoters), which responded differently (not, weakly or strongly) to light and resulted in alternative protein isoforms ( Káldi et al 2006 ).…”

Lessons on fruiting body morphogenesis from genomes and transcriptomes of Agaricomycetes

“…For example, alternative splicing of the blue light receptor wc-1 gene was observed in Phaeosphaeria spp. and it was hypothesized that AS may control various light-dependent reactions (Chiu et al 2010). In Neurospora wc-1 transcription is controlled by multiple distinct cis-regulatory regions (termed different promoters), which responded differently (not, weakly or strongly) to light and resulted in alternative protein isoforms (Káldi et al 2006).…”