Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Mating type a locus alleles and genomic polymorphism in Sporisorium reilianum: comparison of sorghum isolates to those from maize

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Australasian Plant Pathology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Sporisorium reilianum causes head smut in sorghum and maize and exists in two formae speciales, Sporisorium reilianum f. sp. reilianum and Sporisorium reilianum f. sp. zeae that have preference for sorghum and maize, respectively. Infection requires the formation of a dikaryon between sporidia of compatible mating types, leading to a change from yeast-like to hyphal growth within the host plant. This switching is controlled through mating type loci. A total of 66 sorghum isolates of S. reilianum collected from fields in different geographic regions and 2 maize isolates were examined for mating compatibility, leading to the establishment of haploid cultures with three different alleles at the a mating type locus, as verified by gene expression. Interestingly, a mating compatibility was detected between maize and sorghum isolates. Comparison of amino acid sequences, deduced from nucleotide sequencing of pheromone precursor genes of sorghum to the corresponding components in maize, showed 100% similarity of pheromone components mfa1.2, mfa2.1, mfa3.1 and 97% for mfa1.3, mfa3.2 and mfa2.3. Only 1 amino acid substitution was detected in sorghum mfa1.3. To assay host preference in relationship to whole genome polymorphism, six amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) selective primer combinations were used on DNA of S. reilianum isolates. High genetic polymorphism (61%) was observed between sorghum and maize isolates. The resultant dendrogram constructed using neighbor-joining (NJ) analysis grouped maize isolates into one cluster with high similarity (>88%) while sorghum isolates grouped into four clusters suggesting that genetic differentiation contributes to host specific populations of S. reilianum.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Banuett F, Herskovits I (1994) Morphological transitions in the life cycle of Ustilago maydis and their genetic control by the a and b loci. Exp Mycol 18:247–266

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Banuett F, Herskowitz I (1989) Different a alleles of Ustilago maydis are necessary for maintenance of filamentous growth but not for meiosis. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 86:5878–5882

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Casselton L, Olesnicky N (1998) Molecular genetics of mating recognition in basidiomycete Fungi. Microbiol Mol Biol Rev 62:55–70

    PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Dereeper A, Guignon V, Blanc G, Audic S, Buffet S, Chevenet F, Dufayard JF, Guindon S, Lefort V, Lescot M, Claverie JM, Gascuel O (2008) Phylogeny.fr: robust phylogenetic analysis for the non-specialist. Nucleic Acids Res 36:465–469

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Dodman RL, Obst NR, Henzell RG (1985) Races of sorghum head smut (Sphacelotheca reiliana) in southeast Queensland Australas. Plant Pathol 2:45

    Google Scholar 

  • Frederiksen RA (2000) Disease and disease management in sorghum. In: Smith C, Frederiksen RA (eds) Sorghum– origin, history, technology and production. USA. Wiley J & Sons, New York, pp 497–533

    Google Scholar 

  • Frowd JA (1980) A world review of sorghum smuts. In: Williams RJ, Frederiksen RA, Mughogho LK (eds) Sorghum diseases: A world review. ICRISAT, Patancheru, pp 331–348

    Google Scholar 

  • Hanna WF (1929) Studies in the physiology and cytology of Ustilago zeae and Sorosporium reilianum. Phytopathol 19:415–443

    Google Scholar 

  • Hartmann HA, Kahmann R, Bolker M (1996) The pheromone response factor coordinates filamentous growth and pathogenicity in Ustilago maydis. EMBO J 15:1632–1641

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Herrera JA, Vallejo AB (1988) Distribution of race of head smut (Sphacelotheca reliliana) in the northeast and southwest areas of Mexico. Sorghum Newsl 29:86

    Google Scholar 

  • Jaccard P (1908) Nouvelles recherches sur la distribution florale. Bull Soc Vaud Sci Nat 44:223–270

    Google Scholar 

  • Kellner R, Vollmeister E, Feldbrügge M, Begerow D (2012) Interspecific sex in grass smuts and the genetic diversity of their pheromone-receptor system. PLoS Genet 7(12)

  • Koopman W, Gort G (2004) Significance tests and weighted values for AFLP similarities based on Arabidopsis in silico- AFLP fragment length distributions. Genetics 167:1915–1928

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kües U, James TY, Heitman J (2011) Mating type in Basidiomycetes: unipolar, bipolar, and tetrapolar patterns of sexuality. In: Pöggeler S, Wöstemeyer J (eds) Evolution of Fungi and fungal-like organisms. Springer Verlag, Berlin, pp 97–160 (The Mycota; vol. 14)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Little C, Perumal R, Tesso T, Prom LK, Odvody GN, Magill C (2012) Sorghum pathology and biotechnology – a fungal disease perspective: part 1. Grain mold, head smut, and ergot. Eur J Plant Sci Biotech 6:10–30

    Google Scholar 

  • Livak KJ, Schmittgen TD (2001) Analysis of relative gene expression data using real-time quantitative PCR and the 2(−Delta Delta C (T)) method. Methods 25:402–408

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Martinez C, Roux C, Dargent R (1999) Biotrophic development of Sporisorium reilianum zeae in maize shoot apex. Phytopathol 89:247–253

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Martinez C, Roux C, Jauneau A, Dargent R (2002) The biological cycle of Sporisorium reilianum f. sp. zeae: an overview using microscopy. Mycologia 94:505–514

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Naidoo G (1992) Identification and differentiation of host-specific isolates of Sporisorium reilianum using molecular markers. Dissertation, Texas A&M University

  • Naidoo G, Torres-Montalvo H (2002) Genetic variability among and within host specialized isolates of Sporisorium reilianum. In: Leslie JF, Blackwell A (eds) Sorghum and millets diseases. Iowa State Press, Ames, pp 221–225

    Google Scholar 

  • Poloni A, Schirawski J (2016) Host specificity in Sporisorium reilianum is determined by distinct mechanisms in maize and sorghum. MolPlant Pathol 17:741–754

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Prom LK, Perumal R, Erattaimuthu SR, Erpelding JE, Montes N, Odvody GN, Greenwald C, Jin Z, Frederiksen R, Magill CW (2011) Virulence and molecular genotyping studies of Sporisorium reilianum isolates in sorghum. Plant Dis 95:523–529

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Puhalla JE (1968) Compatibility reactions on solid medium and inter strain inhibition in Ustilago maydis. Genetics 60:461–474

    PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Quezada-Salinas A (2010) Selection of resistant maize germplasm to head smut (S. reilianum f. Sp.zea). Colegio De Pastgraduados, Campus Montecillo, Mexico PhD thesis

    Google Scholar 

  • Raudaskoski M, Kothe E (2010) Basidiomycete mating type genes and pheromone signaling. Eukaryot Cell 9:847–859

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rich P, Ejeta G (2008) Towards effective resistance to Striga in African maize. Plant Signal Behav 3:618–621

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Schirawski J, Heinze B, Wagenknecht M, Kahmann R (2005) Mating type loci of Sporisorium reilianum: novel pattern with three a and multiple b specificities. Eukaryot Cell 4:1317–1327

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Schirawski J, Mannhaupt G, Münch K, Brefort T, Schipper K, Doehlemann G, di Stasio M, Rössel N, Mendoza-Mendoza A, Pester D, Müller O, Winterberg B, Meyer E, Ghareeb H, Wollenberg T, Münsterkötter M, Wong P, Walter M, Stukenbrock E, Güldener U, Kahmann R (2010) Pathogenicity determinants in smut fungi revealed by genome comparison. Science 330:1546–1548

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Snetselaar KM, Mims CW (1992) Sporidial fusion and infection of maize seedlings by the smut fungus Ustilago maydis. Mycologia 84:193–203

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stromberg EL, Stienstra WC, Kommedahl T, Matyac CA, Windels CE, Gealdelmann JL (1984) Smut expression and resistance of corn to Sphacelotheca reiliana in Minnesota. Plant Dis 68:880–884

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Teferi A, Petitprez M, Valles V, Albertini L (1989) Influence of soil water potential and soil texture on infection of maize by head smut. Agronomie 9:677–682

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vos P, Hogers R, Bleeker M, Reijans M, Van de Lee T (1995) AFLP: a new technique for DNA fingerprinting. Nucleic Acids Res 23:4407–4414

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • White TJ, Bruns T, Lee S, Taylor JW (1990) Amplification and direct sequencing of fungal ribosomal RNA genes for phylogenetics. In: Innis MA, Gelfand DH, Sninsky JJ, White TJ (eds) PCR protocols: a guide to methods and applications. Academic Press, New York, pp 315–322

    Google Scholar 

  • Zarnack K, Eichhorn H, Kahmann K, Feldbrügge M (2008) Pheromone-regulated target genes respond differentially to MAPK phosphorylation of transcription factor Prf1. MolMicrobiol 69:1041–1053

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang F, Ping J, Du Z, Cheng Q, Huang Y (2011) Identification of a new race of Sporisorium reilianum and characterization of the reaction of sorghum lines to four races of the head smut pathogen. J Phytopathol 159:342–346

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors extend their sincere thanks to Dr. Ramasamy Perumal, KSU for his instructions for AFLP analysis and Global Crop Diversity Trust and USDA, ARS for the project funding support.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, USA

    Ghada L. Radwan, Gary Odvody & Clint W. Magill

  2. Department of Microbiology, Port Said University, Port Said, Egypt

    Ghada L. Radwan

  3. USDA-ARS, Southern Plains Agricultural Research Center, College Station, TX, 77845, USA

    Louis K. Prom

  4. Texas A&M Research and Extension Center, Corpus Christi, TX, 78406, USA

    Gary Odvody

Authors
  1. Ghada L. Radwan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Louis K. Prom
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Gary Odvody
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Clint W. Magill
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Louis K. Prom.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Radwan, G.L., Prom, L.K., Odvody, G. et al. Mating type a locus alleles and genomic polymorphism in Sporisorium reilianum: comparison of sorghum isolates to those from maize. Australasian Plant Pathol. 48, 119–129 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13313-018-0607-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13313-018-0607-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation