Environmental Microbiology (2017) 19, 4140-4153

Yanjun Li, Shunwen Luo, Xiaojing Jia, Yuanye Zhu, Dongming Chen, Yabing Duan, Yiping Hou and Mingguo Zhou (2017)
Regulatory roles of introns in fungicide sensitivity of Fusarium graminearum
Environmental Microbiology 19 (10), 4140-4153
Abstract: Although the roles of introns have been much debated in eukaryotic organisms, none of them have been functionally characterized in Fusarium graminearum. In this study, we characterized the roles of introns in regulation of fungicide-sensitivity of F. graminearum. β₂tub, cyp51A and myosin-5 are important target genes of benzimidazoles, triazoles and cyanoacrylates respectively. To explore the sensitivity regulation functions of introns in target genes, several detailed deletion studies were completed on the intronic regions of β₂tub, cyp51A and myosin-5. Phenotypic analyses showed that deletion of the fourth intron from β₂tub gene (designated β₂Δi4), the sole intron from cyp51A gene (cyp51A-Δi) and the second intron from myosin-5 gene (myo5-Δi2) exhibited an increased sensitivity to corresponding fungicides. In contrast, deletion of the first or second intron from β₂tub gene exhibited a decreased sensitivity to carbendazim. qRT-PCR showed that the mRNA transcript levels of target genes were significantly downregulated in β₂Δi4, cyp51A-Δi and myo5-Δi2 respectively. Meanwhile, Western blot assays revealed that the protein expression levels of β₂tub was also dramatically reduced in β₂Δi4, but accumulated in β₂Δi1 and β₂Δi2. Overall, our results indicate that introns in target genes significantly regulate the fungicide-sensitivity by influencing expression of the corresponding resident genes in F. graminearum.
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Link to article at publishers website
Database assignments for author(s): Ming-Guo Zhou, Yabing Duan, Yiping Hou

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
pesticide resistance of pest

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Fusarium graminearum