Multi-Omics Approaches Provide New Insights into the Identification of Putative Fungal Effectors from Valsa mali

Gulnaz Kahar; Yakupjan Haxim; Abdul Waheed; Tohir A Bozorov; Xiaojie Liu; Xuejing Wen; Mingqi Zhao; Daoyuan Zhang

doi:10.3390/microorganisms12040655

Multi-Omics Approaches Provide New Insights into the Identification of Putative Fungal Effectors from Valsa mali

Microorganisms. 2024 Mar 26;12(4):655. doi: 10.3390/microorganisms12040655.

Authors

Gulnaz Kahar^{1

2

3

4}, Yakupjan Haxim^{1

2

3}, Abdul Waheed^{1

2

3}, Tohir A Bozorov^{1

5}, Xiaojie Liu^{1

2

3}, Xuejing Wen^{1

2

3}, Mingqi Zhao^{1

2

3}, Daoyuan Zhang^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Key Laboratory of Ecological Safety and Sustainable Development in Arid Lands, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China.
² Xinjiang Key Laboratory of Conservation and Utilization of Plant Gene Resources, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China.
³ Turpan Eremophytes Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Turpan 838008, China.
⁴ University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
⁵ Laboratory of Molecular and Biochemical Genetics, Institute of Genetics and Plants Experimental Biology, Uzbek Academy of Sciences, Yukori-Yuz, Kibray 111226, Tashkent Region, Uzbekistan.

Abstract

Pathogenic fungi secrete numerous effectors into host cells to manipulate plants' defense mechanisms. Valsa mali, a necrotrophic fungus, severely impacts apple production in China due to the occurrence of Valsa canker. Here, we predicted 210 candidate effector protein (CEP)-encoding genes from V. mali. The transcriptome analysis revealed that 146 CEP-encoding genes were differentially expressed during the infection of the host, Malus sieversii. Proteome analysis showed that 27 CEPs were differentially regulated during the infection stages. Overall, 25 of the 146 differentially expressed CEP-encoding genes were randomly selected to be transiently expressed in Nicotiana benthamiana. Pathogenicity analysis showed that the transient expression of VM1G-05058 suppressed BAX-triggered cell death while the expression of VM1G-10148 and VM1G-00140 caused cell death in N. benthamiana. In conclusion, by using multi-omics analysis, we identified potential effector candidates for further evaluation in vivo. Our results will provide new insights into the investigation of virulent mechanisms of V. mali.

Keywords: Malus sieversii; RNA-seq; Valsa mali; fungal effectors.

Abstract

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