Abstract
BackgroundPowdery mildew (PM) is a widespread fungal disease of plants in temperate climates, causing significant economic losses in agricultural settings. Specific homologs of the MLO gene family are PM susceptibility factors, as their loss-of function results in durable PM resistance (mlo resistance) in several plant species. The role of MLO susceptibility genes in plant-pathogen interactions is still elusive, however it is known that they are strongly upregulated following PM infection.ResultsIn this study, we investigated the structure of 414 Putative Promoter Regions (PPRs) of MLO genes and highlighted motif and regulatory element patterns related to genomic relationships among species and phylogenetic distance among homologs. A TC box-like motif and a thymine-rich motif were found to be overrepresented in MLO genes transcriptionally upregulated upon infection with PM fungi. As proof of concept, we showed that the expression of a melon (Cucumis melo L.) gene enriched for the motifs above mentioned was strongly upregulated upon infection with the PM fungus Podosphaera xanthii.ConclusionWhile identifying a candidate MLO susceptibility gene in melon, this study provides insight on the transcriptional control of MLO genes and indicates diagnostic features useful to identify MLO susceptibility genes across species affected by the PM disease.
Highlights
Powdery mildew (PM) is a widespread fungal disease of plants in temperate climates, causing significant economic losses in agricultural settings
Identification and distribution of Mildew Locus O (MLO) Cis-acting Regulatory Element (CRE) in Viridiplantae Putative Promoter Regions (PPRs), corresponding to the 2 Kbp sequence located upstream the predicted transcription start site (TSS), were successfully extracted from 414 out of 447 MLO genes previously described in 25 plant genomes [13]
To identify CREs putatively involved in the transcriptional regulation of MLO-expression, a search was performed against the Plant cis-acting regulatory DNA elements (PLACE) database
Summary
Powdery mildew (PM) is a widespread fungal disease of plants in temperate climates, causing significant economic losses in agricultural settings. Specific homologs of the MLO gene family are PM susceptibility factors, as their loss-of function results in durable PM resistance (mlo resistance) in several plant species. Specific homologs of the Mildew Locus O (MLO) plant-specific gene family are PM susceptibility factors, as their loss-of-function results in a durable and broad-spectrum form of resistance, known as mlo. While silencing of the tomato gene SlMLO1 results in mlo resistance to the powdery mildew pathogen Oidium neolycopersici, silencing of the other clade V genes SlMLO3, SlMLO5 and SlMLO8 is still associated with a susceptible phenotype [17]. Previous investigations showed MLO homologs playing a major role in Andolfo et al BMC Plant Biology (2019) 19:150
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