Affiliation:
1. School of Light Industry, Beijing Technology and Business University, Beijing 100048, China
2. Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China
Abstract
Clonostachys rosea is an excellent biocontrol fungus against numerous fungal plant pathogens. The cAMP signaling pathway is a crucial signal transduction pathway in fungi. To date, the role of the cAMP signaling pathway in C. rosea mycoparasitism remains unknown. An adenylate cyclase-encoding gene, crac (an important component of the cAMP signaling pathway), was previously screened from C. rosea 67-1, and its expression level was dramatically upregulated during the C. rosea mycoparasitization of the sclerotia of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. In this study, the function of crac in C. rosea mycoparasitism was explored through gene knockout and complementation. The obtained results show that the deletion of crac influenced the growth rate and colony morphology of C. rosea, as well as the tolerance to NaCl and H2O2 stress. The mycoparasitic effects on the sclerotia of S. sclerotiorum and the biocontrol capacity on soybean Sclerotinia stem rot in ∆crac-6 and ∆crac-13 were both attenuated compared with that of the wild-type strain and complementation transformants. To understand the regulatory mechanism of crac during C. rosea mycoparasitism, transcriptomic analysis was conducted between the wild-type strain and knockout mutant. A number of biocontrol-related genes, including genes encoding cell wall-degrading enzymes and transporters, were significantly differentially expressed during C. rosea mycoparasitism, suggesting that crac may be involved in C. rosea mycoparasitism by regulating the expression of these DEGs. These findings provide insight for further exploring the molecular mechanism of C. rosea mycoparasitism.
Funder
National Natural Science Foundation of China
China Agriculture Research System of MOF and MARA
Science and Technology general project of the Beijing municipal education commission
Subject
Plant Science,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics,Microbiology (medical)