An RNAi-Based Control of Fusarium graminearum Infections Through Spraying of Long dsRNAs Involves a Plant Passage and Is Controlled by the Fungal Silencing Machinery.

Meeting the increasing food and energy demands of a growing population will require the development of ground-breaking strategies that promote sustainable plant production. Host-induced gene silencing has shown great potential for controlling pest and diseases in crop plants. However, while delivery...

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Main Authors: Aline Koch, Dagmar Biedenkopf, Alexandra Furch, Lennart Weber, Oliver Rossbach, Eltayb Abdellatef, Lukas Linicus, Jan Johannsmeier, Lukas Jelonek, Alexander Goesmann, Vinitha Cardoza, John McMillan, Tobias Mentzel, Karl-Heinz Kogel
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2016-10-01
Series:PLoS Pathogens
Online Access:https://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.ppat.1005901&type=printable
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author Aline Koch
Dagmar Biedenkopf
Alexandra Furch
Lennart Weber
Oliver Rossbach
Eltayb Abdellatef
Lukas Linicus
Jan Johannsmeier
Lukas Jelonek
Alexander Goesmann
Vinitha Cardoza
John McMillan
Tobias Mentzel
Karl-Heinz Kogel
author_facet Aline Koch
Dagmar Biedenkopf
Alexandra Furch
Lennart Weber
Oliver Rossbach
Eltayb Abdellatef
Lukas Linicus
Jan Johannsmeier
Lukas Jelonek
Alexander Goesmann
Vinitha Cardoza
John McMillan
Tobias Mentzel
Karl-Heinz Kogel
author_sort Aline Koch
collection DOAJ
description Meeting the increasing food and energy demands of a growing population will require the development of ground-breaking strategies that promote sustainable plant production. Host-induced gene silencing has shown great potential for controlling pest and diseases in crop plants. However, while delivery of inhibitory noncoding double-stranded (ds)RNA by transgenic expression is a promising concept, it requires the generation of transgenic crop plants which may cause substantial delay for application strategies depending on the transformability and genetic stability of the crop plant species. Using the agronomically important barley-Fusarium graminearum pathosystem, we alternatively demonstrate that a spray application of a long noncoding dsRNA (791 nt CYP3-dsRNA), which targets the three fungal cytochrome P450 lanosterol C-14α-demethylases, required for biosynthesis of fungal ergosterol, inhibits fungal growth in the directly sprayed (local) as well as the non-sprayed (distal) parts of detached leaves. Unexpectedly, efficient spray-induced control of fungal infections in the distal tissue involved passage of CYP3-dsRNA via the plant vascular system and processing into small interfering (si)RNAs by fungal DICER-LIKE 1 (FgDCL-1) after uptake by the pathogen. We discuss important consequences of this new finding on future RNA-based disease control strategies. Given the ease of design, high specificity, and applicability to diverse pathogens, the use of target-specific dsRNA as an anti-fungal agent offers unprecedented potential as a new plant protection strategy.
format Article
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issn 1553-7366
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publishDate 2016-10-01
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
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spelling doaj-art-da390cb4c83c4c00ae1df4303612934e2025-08-20T02:45:37ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS Pathogens1553-73661553-73742016-10-011210e100590110.1371/journal.ppat.1005901An RNAi-Based Control of Fusarium graminearum Infections Through Spraying of Long dsRNAs Involves a Plant Passage and Is Controlled by the Fungal Silencing Machinery.Aline KochDagmar BiedenkopfAlexandra FurchLennart WeberOliver RossbachEltayb AbdellatefLukas LinicusJan JohannsmeierLukas JelonekAlexander GoesmannVinitha CardozaJohn McMillanTobias MentzelKarl-Heinz KogelMeeting the increasing food and energy demands of a growing population will require the development of ground-breaking strategies that promote sustainable plant production. Host-induced gene silencing has shown great potential for controlling pest and diseases in crop plants. However, while delivery of inhibitory noncoding double-stranded (ds)RNA by transgenic expression is a promising concept, it requires the generation of transgenic crop plants which may cause substantial delay for application strategies depending on the transformability and genetic stability of the crop plant species. Using the agronomically important barley-Fusarium graminearum pathosystem, we alternatively demonstrate that a spray application of a long noncoding dsRNA (791 nt CYP3-dsRNA), which targets the three fungal cytochrome P450 lanosterol C-14α-demethylases, required for biosynthesis of fungal ergosterol, inhibits fungal growth in the directly sprayed (local) as well as the non-sprayed (distal) parts of detached leaves. Unexpectedly, efficient spray-induced control of fungal infections in the distal tissue involved passage of CYP3-dsRNA via the plant vascular system and processing into small interfering (si)RNAs by fungal DICER-LIKE 1 (FgDCL-1) after uptake by the pathogen. We discuss important consequences of this new finding on future RNA-based disease control strategies. Given the ease of design, high specificity, and applicability to diverse pathogens, the use of target-specific dsRNA as an anti-fungal agent offers unprecedented potential as a new plant protection strategy.https://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.ppat.1005901&type=printable
spellingShingle Aline Koch
Dagmar Biedenkopf
Alexandra Furch
Lennart Weber
Oliver Rossbach
Eltayb Abdellatef
Lukas Linicus
Jan Johannsmeier
Lukas Jelonek
Alexander Goesmann
Vinitha Cardoza
John McMillan
Tobias Mentzel
Karl-Heinz Kogel
An RNAi-Based Control of Fusarium graminearum Infections Through Spraying of Long dsRNAs Involves a Plant Passage and Is Controlled by the Fungal Silencing Machinery.
PLoS Pathogens
title An RNAi-Based Control of Fusarium graminearum Infections Through Spraying of Long dsRNAs Involves a Plant Passage and Is Controlled by the Fungal Silencing Machinery.
title_full An RNAi-Based Control of Fusarium graminearum Infections Through Spraying of Long dsRNAs Involves a Plant Passage and Is Controlled by the Fungal Silencing Machinery.
title_fullStr An RNAi-Based Control of Fusarium graminearum Infections Through Spraying of Long dsRNAs Involves a Plant Passage and Is Controlled by the Fungal Silencing Machinery.
title_full_unstemmed An RNAi-Based Control of Fusarium graminearum Infections Through Spraying of Long dsRNAs Involves a Plant Passage and Is Controlled by the Fungal Silencing Machinery.
title_short An RNAi-Based Control of Fusarium graminearum Infections Through Spraying of Long dsRNAs Involves a Plant Passage and Is Controlled by the Fungal Silencing Machinery.
title_sort rnai based control of fusarium graminearum infections through spraying of long dsrnas involves a plant passage and is controlled by the fungal silencing machinery
url https://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.ppat.1005901&type=printable
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