Molecular Plant Pathology (2017) 18, 963-975

Huidong Fan, Gang Yu, Yanzhi Liu, Xianghui Zhang, Jinliang Liu, Yanhua Zhang, Jeffrey A. Rollins, Fengjie Sun and Hongyu Pan (2017)
An atypical forkhead-containing transcription factor SsFKH1 is involved in sclerotial formation and is essential for pathogenicity in Sclerotinia sclerotiorum
Molecular Plant Pathology 18 (7), 963-975
Abstract: Sclerotinia sclerotiorum (Lib.) de Bary is a necrotrophic plant pathogen with a worldwide distribution. The sclerotia of S. sclerotiorum are pigmented multicellular structures formed from the aggregation of vegetative hyphae. These survival structures play a central role in the life and infection cycles of this pathogen. Here, we characterized an atypical forkhead (FKH)-box-containing protein, SsFKH1, involved in sclerotial development and virulence. To investigate the role of SsFkh1 in S. sclerotiorum, the partial sequence of SsFkh1 was cloned and RNA interference (RNAi)-based gene silencing was employed to alter the expression of SsFkh1. RNA-silenced mutants with significantly reduced SsFkh1 RNA levels exhibited slow hyphal growth and sclerotial developmental defects. In addition, the expression levels of a set of putative melanin biosynthesis-related laccase genes and a polyketide synthase-encoding gene were significantly down-regulated in silenced strains. Disease assays demonstrated that pathogenicity in RNAi-silenced strains was significantly compromised with the development of a smaller infection lesion on tomato leaves. Collectively, the results suggest that SsFkh1 is involved in hyphal growth, virulence and sclerotial formation in S. sclerotiorum.
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Link to article at publishers website
Database assignments for author(s): Hongyu Pan

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
molecular biology - genes

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Sclerotinia sclerotiorum