Abstract
Verticillium dahliae invades the roots of host plants and causes vascular wilt, which seriously diminishes the yield of cotton and other important crops. The protein AAC (ADP, ATP carrier) is responsible for transferring ATP from the mitochondria into the cytoplasm. When V. dahliae protoplasts were transformed with short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) targeting the VdAAC gene, fungal growth and sporulation were significantly inhibited. To further confirm a role for VdAAC in fungal development, we generated knockout mutants (ΔVdACC). Compared with wild-type V. dahliae (Vd wt), ΔVdAAC was impaired in germination and virulence; these impairments were rescued in the complementary strains (ΔVdAAC-C). Moreover, when an RNAi construct of VdAAC under the control of the 35S promoter was used to transform Nicotiana benthamiana, the expression of VdAAC was downregulated in the transgenic seedlings, and they had elevated resistance against V. dahliae. The results of this study suggest that VdAAC contributes to fungal development, virulence and is a promising candidate gene to control V. dahliae. In addition, RNAi is a highly efficient way to silence fungal genes and provides a novel strategy to improve disease resistance in plants.
Highlights
Verticillium dahliae is one of the most destructive soil-borne fungi, infecting many important economic crops, fruit trees and ornamental flowers [1,2]
Our results indicate that VdAAC contributes to fungal germination, development and sporulation, which are requisite for the fungus to invade the plants and induce full virulence in the host
Generate energy for cells, we postulated that short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) designed against the VdAAC gene could be to generate energy for cells, we postulated that siRNAs designed against the VdAAC gene could be introduced into V. dahliae to decrease the expression of VdAAC; silencing of VdAAC could introduced into V. dahliae to decrease the expression of VdAAC; silencing of VdAAC could inhibit the mycelial growth and sporulation
Summary
Verticillium dahliae is one of the most destructive soil-borne fungi, infecting many important economic crops, fruit trees and ornamental flowers [1,2]. This fungus can cause typical disease symptoms, including stunted growth, necrosis, wilt and defoliation, which severely decrease the yield and quality of crops [3]. Verticillium wilt is reported to cause extensive economic losses to the crop industry [4]. The fungus can survive in soil for many years and infect the roots of its hosts. Once the fungus is established in the host, Verticillium wilt is an intractable disease because of the intricate pathogenic mechanism of V. dahliae [6]. Previous studies on V. dahliae have focused on identifying genes that are crucial for fungal development and virulence [8,9,10], inestimable knowledge for crop breeding programs
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