Transcriptomics Reveals the Effect of Thymol on the Growth and Toxin Production of Fusarium graminearum

Abstract

Fusarium graminearum is a harmful pathogen causing head blight in cereals such as wheat and barley, and thymol has been proven to inhibit the growth of many pathogens. This study aims to explore the fungistatic effect of thymol on F. graminearum and its mechanism. Different concentrations of thymol were used to treat F. graminearum. The results showed that the EC50 concentration of thymol against F. graminearum was 40 μg/mL. Compared with the control group, 40 μg/mL of thymol reduced the production of Deoxynivalenol (DON) and 3-Ac-DON by 70.1% and 78.2%, respectively. Our results indicate that thymol can effectively inhibit the growth and toxin production of F. graminearum and cause an extensive transcriptome response. Transcriptome identified 16,727 non-redundant unigenes and 1653 unigenes that COG did not annotate. The correlation coefficients between samples were all >0.941. When FC was 2.0 times, a total of 3230 differential unigenes were identified, of which 1223 were up-regulated, and 2007 were down-regulated. Through the transcriptome, we confirmed that the expression of many genes involved in F. graminearum growth and synthesis of DON and other secondary metabolites were also changed. The gluconeogenesis/glycolysis pathway may be a potential and important way for thymol to affect the growth of F. graminearum hyphae and the production of DON simultaneously.

Carotenoids Occurring in Maize Affect the Redox Homeostasis of Fusarium graminearum and Its Production of Type B Trichothecene Mycotoxins: New Insights Supporting Their Role in Maize Resistance to Giberella Ear Rot

“…For instance, the efficiency of phenolic acids to reduce the biosynthesis of TCTB has been partially ascribed to a decrease in the expression of several tri genes. ,, Other phenylpropanoids including different flavonoids (apigenin, luteolin, kaempferol, quercetin, naringenin) or lignans (magnolol, pinoresinol, secoisolariciresinol) , were also reported as capable of negatively affecting the expression of tri genes. One can also mention the recent study of Wang et al who implemented a RNAseq transcriptomic study to decipher the effect of thymol, a phenolic monoterpene, and evidenced a downregulation of most of the tri genes. However, the mechanisms by which phenylpropanoids or carotenoids may interact with the transcriptional machinery or the signaling pathways and in fine modulate the expression of DON biosynthetic genes remain hitherto unelucidated.…”

Transcriptomic Profiling of Fusarium pseudograminearum in Response to Carbendazim, Pyraclostrobin, Tebuconazole, and Phenamacril

“…The experiments were repeated three times with three replicates for each sample. The relative expression levels of genes were calculated using the 2 −ΔΔCT method [ 20 ], and the standard deviation was calculated from the three biological replicates.…”

“…Zheng et al identified a series of DEGs that may be related to resistance regulation and the fungicidal activity of phenamacril with acomparative transcriptome analysis of resistant and sensitive F. oxysporum strains after phenamacril treatment [ 19 ]. Wang et al explored the fungistatic effect of thymol on F. graminearum via transcriptomic analysis; the analysis indicated that the gluconeogenesis/glycolysis pathway may be simultaneously involved in the growth of F. graminearum hyphae and the production of deoxynivalenol (DON) when treated with thymol [ 20 ].…”

Biological potential of Bacillus subtilis BS45 to inhibit the growth of Fusarium graminearum through oxidative damage and perturbing related protein synthesis

“…Studies have used transcriptome analysis to explore the inhibitory effect of Bacillus on Aspergillus carbonarius , and indicated that Bacillus alters the fungal cell structure, and perturbs energy, transport and osmotic pressure metabolism ( Jiang et al, 2020 ). Other studies have used transcriptome analysis to investigate the control mechanism of metabolites from Streptomyces or plant extracts, such as thymol and glabridin, against Fusarium ( Han S. et al, 2021 ; Yang et al, 2021 ; Wang et al, 2022 ). However, few studies have used transcriptome analysis to explore the signaling pathway changes and intracellular responses to Bacillus on F. graminearum .…”