Journal article
Identification of a gene cluster for the synthesis of the plant hormone abscisic acid in the plant pathogen Leptosphaeria maculans
Reynaldi Darma, Adrian Lutz, Candace E Elliott, Alexander Idnurm
Fungal Genetics and Biology | ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE | Published : 2019
Abstract
Leptosphaeria maculans is an ascomycetous fungus that causes the disease blackleg on Brassica napus (canola). In spite of the importance of the disease worldwide, the mechanisms of disease development are poorly understood. Secondary metabolites, which are one of the common virulence factors of pathogenic fungi, have not been extensively explored from this fungus. An RNA-seq dataset was examined to find genes responsible for secondary metabolite synthesis by this fungus during infection. One polyketide synthase gene, pks5, was found to be upregulated during the early biotrophic stage of development. In addition to pks5, six other genes adjacent to the pks5 gene, including one encoding a Zn(I..
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Awarded by Australian Grains Research and Development Corporation
Funding Acknowledgements
We thank Barbara Howlett for comments on the manuscript and Rohan Lowe for providing information about RNA-sequencing. Australia Awards, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the University of Melbourne Botany Foundation (Gretna Weste Scholarship) providing RD with the opportunity to conduct this research. AI was a recipient of the Robert Lipp Plant Science Memorial Research Fellowship. The research was supported by the Australian Grains Research and Development Corporation (project UM00050). The metabolite analysis was conducted at Metabolomics Australia (School of BioSciences, the University of Melbourne, Australia), a National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) initiative under Bioplatforms Australia Pty Ltd.