Tracking of Diversity and Evolution in the Brown Rot Fungi Monilinia fructicola, Monilinia fructigena, and Monilinia laxa

Abstract

Monilinia species are among the most devastating fungi worldwide as they cause brown rot and blossom blight on fruit trees. To understand the molecular bases of their pathogenic lifestyles, we compared the newly assembled genomes of single strains of Monilinia fructicola, M. fructigena and M. laxa, with those of Botrytis cinerea and Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, as the closest species within Sclerotiniaceae. Phylogenomic analysis of orthologous proteins and syntenic investigation suggest that M. laxa is closer to M. fructigena than M. fructicola, and is closest to the other investigated Sclerotiniaceae species. This indicates that M. laxa was the earliest result of the speciation process. Distinct evolutionary profiles were observed for transposable elements (TEs). M. fructicola and M. laxa showed older bursts of TE insertions, which were affected (mainly in M. fructicola) by repeat-induced point (RIP) mutation gene silencing mechanisms. These suggested frequent occurrence of the sexual process in M. fructicola. More recent TE expansion linked with low RIP action was observed in M. fructigena, with very little in S. sclerotiorum and B. cinerea. The detection of active non-syntenic TEs is indicative of horizontal gene transfer and has resulted in alterations in specific gene functions. Analysis of candidate effectors, biosynthetic gene clusters for secondary metabolites and carbohydrate-active enzymes, indicated that Monilinia genus has multiple virulence mechanisms to infect host plants, including toxins, cell-death elicitor, putative virulence factors and cell-wall-degrading enzymes. Some species-specific pathogenic factors might explain differences in terms of host plant and organ preferences between M. fructigena and the other two Monilinia species.

Prediction of the Potential Distributions of Prunus salicina Lindl., Monilinia fructicola, and Their Overlap in China Using MaxEnt

“…In recent research, two other species of Monilinia spp., M. fructigena and M. polystroma , have been detected in the plum in China [ 39 , 41 ]. Several studies have suggested that M. laxa , M. fructigena , and M. fructicola have a close genetic relationship, which may contribute to the errors in early molecular sequencing identification [ 14 , 23 , 49 , 50 , 51 ]. However, our research predicted the overlap area of P. salicina and M. fructicola included, and was larger than the existing records, and only detected M. fructicola from the plum fruits, indicating the limitation of sample collection and the deficiency of research on plum BR.…”

“…), and pears ( Pyrus communis L.) [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ]. BR is caused by Monilinia spp., which belongs to the phylum Ascomycota, family Sclerotiniaceae, and order Helotiales [ 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 ].…”

Unlocking Nature’s Secrets: Molecular Insights into Postharvest Pathogens Impacting Moroccan Apples and Innovations in the Assessment of Storage Conditions

“…To highlight the incidence of the three aforementioned diseases, a previous study on postharvest rot of apples in Greece showed that the percentage of occurrence of blue mold, gray mold, and Alternaria rot was 44.2%, 23.6%, and 16.1%, respectively [ 17 ]. Brown rot, a common fruit rot with similar symptoms across hosts, is primarily caused by the fungi Monilinia fructigena , M. laxa , or M. fruticola [ 18 ]. However, researchers have considered brown rot on apples to be a minor disease with an incidence of 5.3% [ 17 ].…”

Antifungal activity of volatile organic compounds from essential oils against the postharvest pathogens Botrytis cinerea, Monilinia fructicola, Monilinia fructigena, and Monilinia laxa

“…and Monilinia spp. can be counted among some of the most destructive and widespread postharvest fungal diseases ( Santoro et al., 2018 ; Roca-Couso et al., 2021 ; De Miccolis Angelini et al., 2022 ).…”