Abstract
Gray mold caused by Botrytis cinerea is a devastating disease that leads to huge economic losses worldwide. Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved process that maintains intracellular homeostasis through self-eating. In this study, we identified and characterized the biological function of the autophagy-related protein Atg6 in B. cinerea. Targeted deletion of the BcATG6 gene showed block of autophagy and several phenotypic defects in aspects of mycelial growth, conidiation, sclerotial formation and virulence. All of the phenotypic defects were restored by targeted gene complementation. Taken together, these results suggest that BcAtg6 plays important roles in the regulation of various cellular processes in B. cinerea.
Highlights
INTRODUCTIONBotrytis cinerea (teleomorph Botryotinia fuckeliana) is a necrotrophic ascomycete fungus that causes serious pre- and postharvest crop losses worldwide to a large scope of plant species such as vegetables, fruits and ornamentals (Williamson et al, 2007; Dean et al, 2012)
Botrytis cinerea is a necrotrophic ascomycete fungus that causes serious pre- and postharvest crop losses worldwide to a large scope of plant species such as vegetables, fruits and ornamentals (Williamson et al, 2007; Dean et al, 2012)
We identified and characterized BcAtg6 in B. cinerea, and determined its role in autophagy, fungal development and pathogenicity
Summary
Botrytis cinerea (teleomorph Botryotinia fuckeliana) is a necrotrophic ascomycete fungus that causes serious pre- and postharvest crop losses worldwide to a large scope of plant species such as vegetables, fruits and ornamentals (Williamson et al, 2007; Dean et al, 2012). The common role of Atg in the regulation of autophagy has been verified in yeast, plants and animals, and the yeast Atg is required for the sorting of vacuolar hydrolases (Furuya et al, 2010). We identified and characterized BcAtg in B. cinerea, and determined its role in autophagy, fungal development and pathogenicity. To replace BcATG6 in the wild-type strain B05.10, 1,372bp upstream and 1,281-bp downstream flanking sequences of BcATG6 were amplifies by PCR from the genomic DNA of B05.10. The total proteins of the GFP-BcAtg fusion protein expressing strains under nutrient-rich and nitrogen starvation conditions were extracted as previously described (Gu et al, 2015) and equal amounts of proteins were loaded into each lane of a 10% sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel. These experiments were repeated three times and each time with at least ten samples
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
