Abstract
BackgroundTea-oil tree (Camellia oleifera) is a unique edible-oil tree in China, and anthracnose occurs in wherever it is cultivated, causing great economic losses each year. We have previously identified the Ascomycete fungus Colletotrichum fructicola as the major pathogen of anthracnose in Ca.oleifera. The purpose of this study was to characterize the biological function of Snf1 protein, a key component of the AMPK (AMP-activated protein kinase) pathway, for the molecular pathogenic-mechanisms of C. fructicola.ResultsWe characterized CfSnf1 as the homolog of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Snf1. Targeted CfSNF1 gene deletion revealed that CfSnf1 is involved in the utilization of specific carbon sources, conidiation, and stress responses. We further found that the ΔCfSnf1 mutant was not pathogenic to Ca.oleifera, resulting from its defect in appressorium formation. In addition, we provided evidence showing crosstalk between the AMPK and the cAMP/PKA pathways for the first time in filamentous fungi.ConclusionThis study indicate that CfSnf1 is a critical factor in the development and pathogenicity of C. fructicola and, therefore, a potential fungicide target for anthracnose control.
Highlights
Tea-oil tree (Camellia oleifera) is a unique edible-oil tree in China, and anthracnose occurs in wherever it is cultivated, causing great economic losses each year
CfSnf1 was predicted to encode 741 amino acids and phylogenetic analysis revealed that CfSnf1 shows sequence conservation among other fungi Snf1 proteins; CfSnf1 shows higher amino acid sequence homology with that of C. gloeosporioides (96% identify and 96% similarity) and lesser homology with S. cerevisiae Snf1 (Fig. 1a)
Targeted deletion of CfSNF1 gene in C. fructicola To characterize the functions of CfSnf1, a CfSNF1 genedeletion construct was generated according to the homologous recombination principle by replacing the coding region with a hygromycin-resistance cassette (HPH) (Additional file 1: Figure S1a)
Summary
Tea-oil tree (Camellia oleifera) is a unique edible-oil tree in China, and anthracnose occurs in wherever it is cultivated, causing great economic losses each year. Tea-oil tree (Camellia oleifera) is a commercial shrub native to China and has been widely cultivated throughout southern China for more than 2000 years with abundant edible oil in its seeds [1]. In China, Tea-oil tree covers more than 30,000 km and produces 250,000 tons of edible oil each year, Anthracnose is the most devastating disease in Tea-oil tree and happens in wherever it is cultivated [4]. Our previous studies demonstrated that there are at least five pathogens of anthracnose in Tea-oil tree, namely: Colletotrichum fructicola, Colletotrichum siamense, Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, Colletotrichum camelliae, and Colletotrichum karstii. C. fructicola showed the widest distribution and highest pathogenicity, acting as the major pathogen [4, 5]
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