Effects of Peptide Thanatin on the Growth and Transcriptome of Penicillium digitatum

Abstract

Penicillium digitatum is the most damaging pathogen provoking green mold in citrus fruit during storage, and there is an urgent need for novel antifungal agents with high efficiency. The aim of this study was to investigate the antifungal effects of peptide thanatin against P. digitatum and the molecular mechanisms. Results showed that peptide thanatin had a prominent inhibitory effect on P. digitatum by in vitro and in vivo test. A total of 938 genes, including 556 downregulated and 382 upregulated genes, were differentially expressed, as revealed by RNA-seq of whole P. digitatum genomes analysis with or without thanatin treatment. The downregulated genes mainly encoded RNA polymerase, ribosome biogenesis, amino acid metabolism, and major facilitator superfamily. The genes associated with heat shock proteins and antioxidative systems were widely expressed in thanatin-treated group. DNA, RNA, and the protein content of P. digitatum were significantly decreased after thanatin treatment. In conclusion, thanatin could inhibit the growth of P. digitatum, and the underlying mechanism might be the genetic information processing and stress response were affected. The research will provide more precise and directional clues to explore the inhibitory mechanism of thanatin on growth of P. digitatum.

Inhibitory Properties of Cinnamon Bark Oil against Postharvest Pathogen Penicillium digitatum In Vitro

“…For examples, with the help of transcriptional profiling analysis, OuYang et al (2016) found that citral exposure affected the expression levels of five ergosterol biosynthetic genes (ERG7, ERG11, ERG6, ERG3 and ERG5), led to the reduction in ergosterol content, and induced accumulation of massive lanosterol in P. digitatum [54]. Feng et al (2020) indicated that a total of 938 DEGs were detected in peptide thanatin-treated P. digitatum, and the underlying mechanism might be the genetic information processing and stress response [55]. Lin et al (2020) found that the X33 oligopeptide produced by Streptomyces lavendulae could affect energy metabolism, oxidative stress, and transmembrane transport, and then inhibit the hyphae polarization of P. digitatum [56].…”

Mining RNA-Seq Data to Depict How Penicillium digitatum Shapes Its Transcriptome in Response to Nanoemulsion

“…To deeply understand the action mechanism of nanoemulsion from molecular aspects and seek the pathway involved, we used RNA-Seq technology to profile the transcriptome of P. digitatum treated with nanoemulsion, which induced the expression of many stress response genes and the pathway involved to alleviate the adverse effect. Recent research by RNA-seq also observed different gene and pathway responses in P. digitatum cells treated by antifungal agent [( 41 , 42 )].…”

Combined transcriptome and metabolome analyses reveal the potential mechanism for the inhibition of Penicillium digitatum by X33 antimicrobial oligopeptide

“…In the present study, several genes, such as hsp 42 and hsp 70 , which are associated with the heat shock protein, a crucial molecular chaperone of the stress reaction, were overexpressed by 1.41- to 1.62-fold. A previous study showed that P. digitatum genes responding to stress, including hsp70 , hsp90 , hsp78 , and hsp60 , were overexpressed after thanatin treatment (Feng et al 2020 ). Furthermore, D-sorbitol levels in P. digitatum cells decreased after X33 AMOP treatment.…”

“…The nucleic acids were quantified using the 4,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) binding approach, following the methodology of a previous study with minor modifications (Feng et al 2020 ). DAPI is a fluorochrome that can eradiate blue fluorescence by effectually penetrating the cells and binding to the minor groove of the double-stranded DNA and the AU base pairs of RNA.…”