Gene Expression Patterns in Plants Colonized with Pathogenic and Non-pathogenic Gene Disruption Mutants of Colletotrichum

Abstract

Fungal plant pathogens are responsible for extensive annual crop and revenue losses throughout the world. To better understand why fungi cause diseases, we performed gene-disruption mutagenesis on several pathogenic Colletotrichum species and demonstrated that pathogenic isolates can be converted to symbionts expressing non-pathogenic lifestyles. One group of nonpathogenic mutants confer disease protection against pathogenic species of Col!etotrichum, Fusarium and Phytophthora; drought tolerance; and growth enhancement to host plants. These mutants have been defined as mutualists and disease resistance correlates to a decrease in the time required for hosts to activate defense systems when exposed to virulent fungi. A second group of non-pathogenic mutants did not confer disease resistance and were classified as commensals. In addition, we have demonstrated that wildtype pathogenic Colletotrichum species can express non-pathogenic lifestyles, including mutualism, on plants they colonize asymptomatically. We have been using wildtype and isogenic gene disruption mutants to characterize gene expression patterns in plants colonized with a pathogen, mutualist or commensal. The US group is contrasting genes expressed during colonization by mutuahstic and commensal mutants of C. magna and a pathogenic wildtype C. coccodes on tomato. The Israeli group is characterizing genes expressed during asymptomatic colonization of tomato by wildtype C. acutatum and a non-pathogenic mutant.To accomplish this we have been utilizing suppressive subtraction hybridization, microarray and sequencing strategies. The expected contribution of this research to agriculture in the US and Israel is: 1) understanding how pathogens colonize certain hosts asymptomatic ally will shed light on the ecology of plant pathogens which has been described as a fundamental deficiency in plant pathology; 2) identifying genes involved in symbiotically conferred disease resistance will help explain why and how pathogens cause disease, and may identify new candidate targets for developing genetically modified disease resistant crop plants.