Clathrin Is Important for Virulence Factors Delivery in the Necrotrophic Fungus Botrytis cinerea

Abstract

Fungi are the most prevalent plant pathogens, causing annually important damages. To infect and colonize their hosts, they secrete effectors including hydrolytic enzymes able to kill and macerate plant tissues. These secreted proteins are transported from the Endoplasmic Reticulum and the Golgi apparatus to the extracellular space through intracellular vesicles. In pathogenic fungi, intracellular vesicles were described but their biogenesis and their role in virulence remain unclear. In this study, we report the essential role of clathrin heavy chain (CHC) in the pathogenicity of Botrytis cinerea, the agent of gray mold disease. To investigate the importance of this protein involved in coat vesicles formation in eukaryotic cells, a T-DNA insertional mutant reduced in the expression of the CHC-encoding gene, and a mutant expressing a dominant-negative form of CHC were studied. Both mutants were strongly affected in pathogenicity. Characterization of the mutants revealed altered infection cushions and an important defect in protein secretion. This study demonstrates the essential role of clathrin in the infectious process of a plant pathogenic fungus and more particularly its role in virulence factors delivery.

Cell-Wall-Degrading Enzymes-Related Genes Originating from Rhizoctonia solani Increase Sugar Beet Root Damage in the Presence of Leuconostoc mesenteroides

“…A few of these genes have been demonstrated to be important pathogenicity factors in other fungi. A T-DNA insertional mutation of the clathrin heavy chain (CHC) gene in Botrytis cinerea showed a significant reduction in fungal pathogenicity during the infection of the bean leaf, cucumber cotyledon, and apple fruit [34]. In another study, the inhibition of serine palmitoyltransferase activity using chemical inhibitors showed antifungal activity against Aspergillus fumigates and Rhizopus oryzae, Candida sp.…”

Snf1 Kinase Differentially Regulates Botrytis cinerea Pathogenicity according to the Plant Host

“…The compound appressorial structure of B. cinerea, called the infection cushion, is thought to be a differentiated organ, dedicated to the massive secretion of CWDE [40]. Indeed, in infection cushion formation, CWDE secretion and nutrient assimilation are supposed to together play major roles in B. cinerea pathogenicity, as their simultaneous impairment is a phenotypic signature of non-pathogenic mutants [41,42]. B. cinerea also has a remarkable capacity for modulating the ambient pH during its infection process, by secreting either organic acids (e.g., oxalic acid) or ammonia, enabling this fungus to colonize plants with acidic or neutral tissues [43].…”

Editorial: Highlights from the Botrytis and Sclerotinia 2022 Joint Conference

“…The innovative research presented at the conference can be divided into several themes, including Fungal development and Functional genomics (Fall et al, 2018;Hahn and Scalliet, 2021;Henrıquez-Urrutia et al, 2022;Schumacher, 2023); Host adaptation and specificity (Clarkson et al, 2017;Liang and Rollins, 2018;de Valleé et al, 2019;Lacrampe et al, 2021;Mercier et al, 2021;Michael et al, 2021;Silva et al, 2021a;Silva et al, 2021b;You and van Kan, 2021;Anand et al, 2022;Rombach et al), virulence mechanisms, including mycoviruses (Kamaruzzaman et al, 2019;Fu et al, 2023), bioactive peptides, extracellular vesicles (Souibgui et al, 2021;De Valleé et al, 2023), and secretion (Lyu et al, 2016;Xie et al, 2021); Epidemiology, Ecology, and disease management (Pintye et al, 2015;Nicolaisen et al, 2017;Chen et al, 2018;Fall et al, 2018;Wytinck et al, 2020;Samaras et al, 2021;Romanazzi and Moumni, 2022); and host adaptation, virulence, and disease management aspects related to wine grapes and noble wine (Hegyi et al, 2022;Mundy et al, 2022;Jiang et al, 2023). Notably, the use of cutting edge technologies for both genetic and -omic analyses, and disease detection and management, was evident in the research presented.…”