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Low-affinity iron transport protein Uvt3277 is important for pathogenesis in the rice false smut fungus Ustilaginoidea virens

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Abstract

Ustilaginoidea virens is the causal agent of rice false smut disease resulting in quantitative and qualitative losses in rice. To gain insights into the pathogenic mechanisms of U. virens, we established a T-DNA insertion mutant library of U. virens through Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation and selected an enhanced pathogenicity mutant (i.e., B3277). We analyzed the biological characteristics of the wild-type P1 and B3277. The growth rate and sporulation of B3277 were decreased compared with those of P1; the ferrous iron could be utilized by B3277, but inhibited the growth of P1. Southern blot analysis was performed to verify the copy number of the foreign gene inserted in the genomic DNA and only one copy of the T-DNA was found. The combined hiTAIL-PCR with RACE-PCR analysis showed the successful cloning of full length of the T-DNA flanking gene associated with pathogenicity, named Uvt3277. Gene expression was analyzed using real-time PCR. Results revealed that Uvt3277 was expressed at lower levels in B3277 than in P1. This gene was then subjected to bioinformatics analysis. The encoded protein of Uvt3277 exhibited high homology with low-affinity iron transporter proteins in some fungi. Transformation of the RNAi vector by constructing the hairpin RNA of the target gene was confirmed as successful. The pathogenicity of the transformant also increased. These results suggested that Uvt3277 may have an important function associated with the pathogenesis of U. virens. This study provides insights into the pathogenic mechanism of U. virens and a molecular target of disease control.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31401700), the Agriculture Innovation Foundation of Jiangsu Province (CX(12)5005, CX(15)1054).

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  1. Yong-feng Liu

    Present address: Rice Diseases Biological Control 523 Laboratory Institute of Plant Protection, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing, 210014, China

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Plant Protection, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing, 210014, China

    Meng-ting Zheng, Hui Ding, Lei Huang, Ya-hui Wang, Mi-na Yu, Rui Zheng, Jun-jie Yu & Yong-feng Liu

  2. College of Life Science, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, China

    Meng-ting Zheng, Hui Ding & Lei Huang

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Communicated by M. Kupiec.

Meng-ting Zheng and Hui Ding are co-first authors.

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Zheng, Mt., Ding, H., Huang, L. et al. Low-affinity iron transport protein Uvt3277 is important for pathogenesis in the rice false smut fungus Ustilaginoidea virens . Curr Genet 63, 131–144 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00294-016-0620-4

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