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Molecular Biology of Fungal Plant Pathogens
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Molecular Biology of Fungal Plant Pathogens

A special issue of Journal of Fungi (ISSN 2309-608X). This special issue belongs to the section "Fungi in Agriculture and Biotechnology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2023) | Viewed by 4243

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Xin Liu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Food Safety and Nutrition, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing 210014, China
Interests: fusarium; mycotoxins; virulence; fungal disease control; mycotoxin control; fungal plant pathogens; molecular biology
Dr. Wei Tang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Plant Protection, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
Interests: rice blast; fungal development; pathogenesis; genomics; plant-pathogen interactions
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Yingzi Yun

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Plant Protection, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
Interests: fungal pathogen; pathogenesis; genomics; plant-pathogen interactions; plant disease control
Dr. Wenying Yu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Bioengineering, College of Life Science, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
Interests: plant pathogenic fungi; mycotoxins; the interaction between plants and microorganisms; molecular mechanism

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Plant fungal pathogens cause a vast number of plant diseases in agriculture and forestry, which greatly affect the economies of developing and developed countries globally. Fungi undergo morphological transitions to adapt to the changing environment during their life cycles, numerous proteins and molecular pathways participate in these processes to complete fungal growth, reproduction, development, and pathogenicity. Microscopic, metabolomic, and genetic methods allow for detailed investigations of the molecular biology of plant fungal pathogens, which will shed new light on the development of plant disease control. This Special Issue aims to identify the development and pathogenicity-related molecular mechanism in plant fungal pathogens. We welcome Original Research or Review papers that discuss the molecular mechanism underlying the plant fungal growth, development, and pathogenesis.

Prof. Dr. Xin Liu
Dr. Wei Tang
Dr. Yingzi Yun
Dr. Wenying Yu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Fungi is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • fungal development
  • pathogenesis, functional genomics
  • fungi-environment interactions

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

25 pages, 46494 KiB  
Article
A Network of Sporogenesis-Responsive Genes Regulates the Growth, Asexual Sporogenesis, Pathogenesis and Fusaric Acid Production of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense
by Songmao Lu, Huobing Deng, Yaqi Lin, Meimei Huang, Haixia You, Yan Zhang, Weijian Zhuang, Guodong Lu and Yingzi Yun
J. Fungi 2024, 10(1), 1; https://doi.org/10.3390/jof10010001 - 19 Dec 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1102
Abstract
The conidia produced by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense (Foc), the causative agent of Fusarium Wilt of Banana (FWB), play central roles in the disease cycle, as the pathogen lacks a sexual reproduction process. Until now, the molecular regulation network of asexual sporogenesis [...] Read more.
The conidia produced by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense (Foc), the causative agent of Fusarium Wilt of Banana (FWB), play central roles in the disease cycle, as the pathogen lacks a sexual reproduction process. Until now, the molecular regulation network of asexual sporogenesis has not been clearly understood in Foc. Herein, we identified and functionally characterized thirteen (13) putative sporulation-responsive genes in Foc, namely FocmedA(a), FocmedA(b), abaA-L, FocflbA, FocflbB, FocflbC, FocflbD, FocstuA, FocveA, FocvelB, wetA-L, FocfluG and Foclae1. We demonstrated that FocmedA(a), abaA-L, wetA-L, FocflbA, FocflbD, FocstuA, FocveA and Foclae1 mediate conidiophore formation, whereas FocmedA(a) and abaA-L are important for phialide formation and conidiophore formation. The expression level of abaA-L was significantly decreased in the ΔFocmedA(a) mutant, and yeast one-hybrid and ChIP-qPCR analyses further confirmed that FocMedA(a) could bind to the promoter of abaA-L during micro- and macroconidiation. Moreover, the transcript abundance of the wetA-L gene was significantly reduced in the ΔabaA-L mutant, and it not only was found to function as an activator of micro- and macroconidium formation but also served as a repressor of chlamydospore production. In addition, the deletions of FocflbB, FocflbC, FocstuA and Foclae1 resulted in increased chlamydosporulation, whereas FocflbD and FocvelB gene deletions reduced chlamydosporulation. Furthermore, FocflbC, FocflbD, Foclae1 and FocmedA(a) were found to be important regulators for pathogenicity and fusaric acid synthesis in Foc. The present study therefore advances our understanding of the regulation pathways of the asexual development and functional interdependence of sporulation-responsive genes in Foc. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Molecular Biology of Fungal Plant Pathogens)
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12 pages, 2622 KiB  
Article
Transcription Factor VM1G_06867: A Requirement for Growth, Pathogenicity, Development, and Maintenance of Cell Wall Integrity in Valsa mali
by Yufei Diao, Jiyang Jin, Xiong Xiong, Chengming Yu, Yehan Tian, Duochuan Li and Huixiang Liu
J. Fungi 2023, 9(6), 692; https://doi.org/10.3390/jof9060692 - 20 Jun 2023
Viewed by 1132
Abstract
Apple canker disease, caused by Valsa mali, is one of the most serious apple tree diseases in China. VmSom1 is an important transcription factor that acts on the cyclic adenosine signaling pathway (cAMP/PKA), regulating the growth, development, morphological differentiation, and pathogenic forces [...] Read more.
Apple canker disease, caused by Valsa mali, is one of the most serious apple tree diseases in China. VmSom1 is an important transcription factor that acts on the cyclic adenosine signaling pathway (cAMP/PKA), regulating the growth, development, morphological differentiation, and pathogenic forces of the pathogen. We perform transcriptome analysis of the VmSom1 deletion mutant and the wild-type strain 11-175 and identify a significantly differentially expressed gene, VM1G_06867, a zinc finger motif transcription factor in V. mali. In this study, we obtain the VM1G_06867 gene using the single deletion mutant via homologous recombination. To determine the relationship between VmSom1 and VM1G_06867, we also obtain a double deletion mutant ΔVmSom1/06867. Compared to the wild-type strain 11-175, the single deletion mutant VM1G_06867 shows a drastic reduction in growth rate and forms more pycnidia on the PDA medium. Additionally, the growth of the mutant is inhibited by SDS, Congo red, and fluorescent brighteners. In comparison to the single deletion mutant VmSom1, the double deletion mutant ΔVmSom1/06867 shows no significant change in growth or conidiation and is unable to produce conidia. The growth rate is significantly increased in Congo red, NaCl, and Sorbitol mediums. These results demonstrate that VM1G_06867 plays important roles in growth, pathogenicity, asexual development, and maintenance of cell wall integrity. VM1G_06867 can recover osmotic stress and cell wall integrity defects caused by the deletion of VmSom1, as well as restore the loss of pathogenicity caused by the deletion of the VmSom1 gene, but not completely. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Molecular Biology of Fungal Plant Pathogens)
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17 pages, 5735 KiB  
Article
Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases SvPmk1 and SvMps1 Are Critical for Abiotic Stress Resistance, Development and Pathogenesis of Sclerotiophoma versabilis
by Felix Abah, Yunbo Kuang, Jules Biregeya, Yakubu Saddeeq Abubakar, Zuyun Ye and Zonghua Wang
J. Fungi 2023, 9(4), 455; https://doi.org/10.3390/jof9040455 - 7 Apr 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1479
Abstract
Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathways are evolutionarily conserved in eukaryotes and modulate responses to both internal and external stimuli. Pmk1 and Mps MAPK pathways regulate stress tolerance, vegetative growth and cell wall integrity in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Pyricularia oryzae. Here, we deployed [...] Read more.
Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathways are evolutionarily conserved in eukaryotes and modulate responses to both internal and external stimuli. Pmk1 and Mps MAPK pathways regulate stress tolerance, vegetative growth and cell wall integrity in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Pyricularia oryzae. Here, we deployed genetic and cell biology strategies to investigate the roles of the orthologs of Pmk1 and Mps1 in Sclerotiophoma versabilis (herein referred to as SvPmk1 and SvMps1, respectively). Our results showed that SvPmk1 and SvMps1 are involved in hyphal development, asexual reproduction and pathogenesis in S. versabilis. We found that ∆Svpmk1 and ∆Svmps1 mutants have significantly reduced vegetative growths on PDA supplemented with osmotic stress-inducing agents, compared to the wild type, with ∆Svpmps1 being hypersensitive to hydrogen peroxide. The two mutants failed to produce pycnidia and have reduced pathogenicity on Pseudostellaria heterophylla. Unlike SvPmk1, SvMps1 was found to be indispensable for the fungal cell wall integrity. Confocal microscopic analyses revealed that SvPmk1 and SvMps1 are ubiquitously expressed in the cytosol and nucleus. Taken together, we demonstrate here that SvPmk1 and SvMps1 play critical roles in the stress resistance, development and pathogenesis of S. versabilis. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Molecular Biology of Fungal Plant Pathogens)
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