Abstract
Microrchidia (MORC) proteins are fundamental regulators of genome stabilization, chromatin remodeling and gene expression in both mammals and plants. In Arabidopsis, their activity is linked to the RNA-directed DNA methylation (RdDM) pathway, which utilizes small RNAs (sRNAs) to influence the rate of DNA methylation and chromatin compaction and thus gene expression. In barley, there are a total of seven members of the MORC family, and recent advances showed that HvMORC1 and HvMORC6a also interact with components of the RdDM pathway. CRISPR/SpCas9-mediated single and double knock-out mutants showed de-repression of transposable elements (TEs) and pathogenesis-related (PR) genes and interestingly increased resistance to both biotrophic and necrotrophic plant pathogenic fungi. In this study, we further demonstrate the requirement of MORC proteins in the resistance against two devastating cereal diseases, Bipolaris spot blotch, caused by Bipolaris sorokiniana and Fusarium root rot, caused by Fusarium graminearum.
Highlights
In eukaryotes, transcriptional gene silencing (TGS) results in decreased RNA synthesis by establishing and maintaining DNA methylation through the RNA-directed DNA methylation (RdDM) pathway (Law and Jacobsen 2010; Erdmann and Picard 2020)
We have extended our analysis on the role of barley MORC proteins in RdDM-mediated epigenetic regulation of disease resistance, using Bipolaris sorokiniana (Bs) and Fusarium root rot (FRR) caused by Fg as study cases as they are two major cereal pathogens of global importance
Ten-day-old wild-type barley (HvWT) cultivar 'Golden Promise' (GP) and GP seedlings with knock-out (KO) mutations in genes HvMORC1 and HvMORC6a were spray-inoculated with Bs conidia and five days post-inoculation the total number of necrotic lesions was recorded
Summary
Transcriptional gene silencing (TGS) results in decreased RNA synthesis by establishing and maintaining DNA methylation through the RNA-directed DNA methylation (RdDM) pathway (Law and Jacobsen 2010; Erdmann and Picard 2020). On the other hand, are devastating plant pathogens of wheat and barley that are widespread worldwide causing Fusarium head blight (FHB), Fusarium crown rot (FCR) and Fusarium root rot (FRR) (Hollaway et al 2013; Balmas et al 2015). They contaminate the grain with mycotoxins and decrease grain quality and availability (Gaffar et al 2019). We show here that barley MORC single and double mutants generated with CRISPR/SpCas exhibit increased resistance to Bipolaris spot blotch and FRR
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