Characterization of molecular factors from plants pathogen Phytophthora cinnamomi
Conference Paper
Overview
Research
Additional Document Info
View All
Overview
abstract
Sociedade Portuguesa de Microbiologia, Sociedade Portuguesa de Biotecnologia
The culture of the chestnut tree is extremely important in the northern region of Portugal, occupying a significant proportion of useful agricultural area. The annual average chestnut production in Portugal can reach 20 000 tons. New plantation areas have increased in the last few decades. However the ink disease caused by the oomycete Phytophthora cinnamomi has damage and killed many trees and up to now no concrete solutions have been offered to control the illness. As a consequence, the disease propagation in the orchards of chestnut trees has been causing severe productivity and yield breaks. In addition to the economical losses, the importance of sociological and landscape aspects for the region cannot be neglected.
Oomycetes species can manipulate biochemical and physiological processes in their host plants through a diverse array of virulence or avirulence molecules, known as effectors. In susceptible plants, these effectors promote infection by suppressing defense responses, enhancing susceptibility, or inducing disease symptoms. Alternatively, in resistant plants, effectors are recognized by the products of plant resistance genes, resulting in host cell death and effective defence responses known as the hypersensitive response (HR).
We've identified and characterized some proteins involved in mechanisms of infection by Phytophthora cinnamomi: endo-1,3-beta-glucanase (complete cds), exo-glucanase (partial cds); glucanase inhibitor protein (GIP) (complete cds); necrosis-inducing Phytophthora protein 1 (NPP1) (complete cds) and transglutaminase.
Several technologies, such reverse transcriptase PCR, in vivo expression technology, and Bioinformatics tools have been used to study the expression of selected genes from fungi during infection. In this work we intend to integrate the necessary bioinformatics tools that were used in this investigation. These tools include the use of Databases and associated homology programs as Fasta and Clustal, and several programs for sequence analysis and design of experiments such PCR.
RT-PCR studies demonstrate that P. cinnamomi elicitins have higher expression in substrates such cellulose and sawdust. The studies of expression of these genes in vivo infection, with cell lines of Castanea sativa, reveal the intimate relationship between plants and phytopathogens has led to the coevolution of a number of complex strategies for attack and defense. For a pathogen to colonize a host successfully, it must develop mechanisms either to evade detection or, failing that, to subvert the defense responses.
