Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UNIPROT:P06889 (Mol)
 630,302 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Polygalacturonases (PGs) hydrolyze the homogalacturonan of plant cell-wall pectin and are important virulence factors of several phytopathogenic fungi. In response to abiotic and biotic stress, plants accumulate PG-inhibiting proteins (PGIPs) that reduce the activity of fungal PGs. In Arabidopsis thaliana, PGIPs with comparable activity against BcPG1, an important pathogenicity factor of the necrotrophic fungus Botrytis cinerea, are encoded by two genes, AtPGIP1 and AtPGIP2. Both genes are induced by fungal infection through different signaling pathways. We show here that transgenic Arabidopsis plants expressing an antisense AtPGIP1 gene have reduced AtPGIP1 inhibitory activity and are more susceptible to B. cinerea infection. These results indicate that PGIP contributes to basal resistance to this pathogen and strongly support the vision that this protein plays a role in Arabidopsis innate immunity.
Mol Plant Microbe Interact 2006 Aug
PMID:Antisense expression of the Arabidopsis thaliana AtPGIP1 gene reduces polygalacturonase-inhibiting protein accumulation and enhances susceptibility to Botrytis cinerea. 1690 59

Plants are susceptible to infection by a broad range of fungal pathogens. Many horticulturally important crop species lack adequate genetic resistance to disease. Studies on potential mechanisms of disease resistance in plants have revealed the importance of a range of pathogenesis-related (PR) proteins with antifungal activity in reducing colonization of plant tissues by pathogens. We are evaluating a range of PR-proteins, through heterologous expression in transgenic carrot tissues, for their effects on fungal disease development. The protocols for carrot transformation with a thaumatin-like protein are described. In addition, the use of herbicide resistance as a selectable marker in carrot transformation is illustrated. In this protocol, petiole segments from carrot seedlings are exposed to Agrobacterium for 10-30 min and co-cultivated for 3 d, after which herbicide selection is imposed until embryogenic calli are produced after 8-12 wk. The transfer of the embryogenic calli to hormone-free medium yields transgenic plantlets. This genetic transformation protocol has supported the generation of transgenic carrot plants with defined T-DNA inserts at the rate of between 1 and 3 Southern positive independent events out of 100.
Methods Mol Biol 2006
PMID:Carrot (Daucus carota L.). 1703 46

The Saprolegniales are responsible for various fish mycoses worldwide and considered the most important fungi afflicting fresh water fish. Saprolegniosis leads to massive epidermal destruction and macrophage recruitment, yet little is known regarding the cytological response of their piscine hosts. The objective of this study was to explore the response of fish macrophage to members of the Saprolegniales using the rainbow trout monocyte/macrophage cell line, RTS11. After 48 h in co-culture, RTS11 demonstrated chemotaxis, adherence and homotypic aggregation to both live and heat-killed fungal spores and mycelia. This aggregation was enhanced when using conditioned media from co-cultured RTS11 and Achlya, suggesting the presence of synergistic effectors of aggregation. Although fungal toxins were not evident, as cells remained viable throughout fungal overgrowth, phagocytosis was inhibited due to large fungal spore size, allowing these molds to evade macrophage defenses. Although class I MH and other viral response genes showed no significant change in expression, calreticulin and interleukin-8 were moderately up-regulated implicating calcium modulation and chemotactic response, respectively. Cyclooxygenase (COX-2) and the cytokines IL-1beta and TNFalpha were strongly up-regulated in the presence of Achlya, while gene expression of the class II major histocompatibility (MH II) receptor and associated molecules appeared down-regulated, suggesting fungal interference of immune function. Previous studies have shown an increased dependence of macrophage in immune function at low temperatures; based upon data presented here, this reduction of macrophage MH II receptor expression and inability to phagocytose spores may limit host response thereby providing increased susceptibility to these opportunistic pathogens.
Mol Immunol 2007 Mar
PMID:Response of the rainbow trout monocyte/macrophage cell line, RTS11 to the water molds Achlya and Saprolegnia. 1720 28

Fungal infection of plants involves degradation of the host cell wall through the action of lytic enzymes secreted by the pathogen. The role of these enzymes in virulence is difficult to determine due to their functional redundancy and, therefore, remains controversial. Here, we have studied XlnR, a zinc-finger transcription factor from the vascular wilt pathogen Fusarium oxysporum that is orthologous to the major transcriptional activator of xylanase genes in Aspergillus spp. Transcription of the xlnR gene was activated by inducing carbon sources such as oat spelt xylan (OSX) and repressed by glucose. Targeted knockout of xlnR in F. oxysporum resulted in lack of transcriptional activation of structural xylanase genes, both in culture and during infection of tomato plants, as well as in dramatically reduced extracellular xylanase activity. By contrast, overexpression of xlnR under the control of the Aspergillus nidulans gpdA promoter did not significantly increase xylanase activity, suggesting that XlnR is regulated not only at the transcriptional but also at the post-translational level. The deltaxlnR mutants were still fully virulent on tomato plants. Thus, XlnR, the major transcriptional activator of xylanase genes, is not an essential virulence determinant in F. oxysporum.
Mol Plant Microbe Interact 2007 Aug
PMID:Role of the transcriptional activator xlnR of Fusarium oxysporum in regulation of xylanase genes and virulence. 1772 1

The RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRP) cDNA, designated as Gossypium hirsutum RdRP (GhRdRP) was cloned from cotton by rapid amplification of cDNA ends-polymerase chain reaction (RACE-PCR). The full-length cDNA was 3,672 bp in size and encoded an open reading frame (ORF) of 1,110 amino acids which contained the RdRP conserved functional domain and the signature motif DbDGD. Amino acid sequence alignment indicated that GhRdRP shared the highest identity (66.37%) with AtRdRP1 and had homology with other plant, fungal, yeast and nematode RdRPs. The corresponding genomic DNA containing five exons and four introns, was isolated and analyzed. Also a 5'-flanking region was cloned, and a group of putative cis-acting elements were identified. Southern blot analysis revealed a single copy of the GhRdRP gene in cotton genome. The expression analysis by semi-quantitative RT-PCR showed that GhRdRP was induced by salicylic acid (SA), 5-chloroSA (5-CSA) and fungal infection of Rhizoctonia solani Kuhn. The cloning and characterization of the GhRdRP gene will be useful for further studies of biological roles of GhRdRP in plants.
Mol Biol Rep 2009 Jan
PMID:Molecular cloning and characterization of an inducible RNA-dependent RNA polymerase gene, GhRdRP, from cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.). 1792 95

Southern corn rust (SCR) is a fungal disease caused by Puccinia polysora Underw, which can infect maize and may result in substantial yield losses in maize production. The maize inbred line Qi319 carries the SCR resistance gene RppQ. In order to identify molecular markers linked to the RppQ gene, several techniques were utilized including random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD), simple sequence repeat (SSR), and amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP). In addition, sequence characterized amplified region (SCAR) techniques combined with bulked segregant analysis (BSA) were used. Seven RAPD markers, eight SSR markers, and sixty-three AFLP primer combinations amplified polymorphisms between two parents and two bulk populations. A large F2 population was used for genetic analysis and for fine mapping of the RppQ gene region. One AFLP polymorphic band, M-CAA/E-AGC 324, was converted to a SCAR marker, MA7, which was mapped to a position 0.46 cM from RppQ. Finally, the RppQ gene was mapped between the SCAR marker MA7 and the AFLP marker M-CCG/E-AGA 157 with distances of 0.46 and 1.71 cM, respectively.
Mol Genet Genomics 2007 Dec
PMID:Characterization and fine mapping of RppQ, a resistance gene to southern corn rust in maize. 1794 Aug 1

Botrytis cinerea and Sclerotinia sclerotiorum secrete oxalic acid as a pathogenicity factor with a broad action. Consequently, it should be possible to interfere with the infection process by degrading oxalic acid during the interaction of these pathogens with their hosts. We have evaluated the potential of oxalate-degrading bacteria to protect plants against pathogenic fungi. Such bacteria were isolated from agricultural soil and selected on agar plates with Ca-oxalate as the sole carbon source. Four strains were retained with a medium-to-strong protective activity on Arabidopsis thaliana leaves against B. cinerea and S. sclerotiorum. They can provide 30 to 70% protection against fungal infection in different pathosystems, including B. cinerea on A. thaliana, cucumber, grapevine, and tomato. The oxalate-degrading bacteria induced only some marker genes for common plant signaling pathways for defenses, but protective effects were slightly reduced in A. thaliana mutants impaired in the ethylene and jasmonic acid signaling pathways. More detailed studies on the protective mechanism were performed in ox-strain B, identified as Cupriavidus campinensis, by analysis of transposon-tagged mutants that have a reduced ability to degrade oxalic acid.
Mol Plant Microbe Interact 2007 Dec
PMID:Oxalate-degrading bacteria can protect Arabidopsis thaliana and crop plants against botrytis cinerea. 1799 Sep 61

Fungi Aspergillus spp. are able to infect all tissues and organs and often cause invasive mycosis (aspergillosis), which is usually a fatal disease, especially in the patients with compromised immune system. Microbiological monitoring of these infectious agents is necessary in modem medical facilities. Mobile elements can be used as markers for identification of species and strains of Aspergillus found indoors as well as in aspergillosis diagnostics. Genomic sequences of two representative Aspergillus species, A. fumigatus and A. nidulans, were analysed in silico in order to detect LTR retrotransposons. We found considerable differences in the composition of retrotransposon families between two studied species. One of the detected families, which is present in both studied Aspergillus species, is phylogenetically quite different from all other known fungal retrotransposons. The majority of elements are represented by damaged copies. Nevertheless, we describe for the first time allegedly non-damaged LTR copies that contain intact ORFs and could be active.
Mol Biol (Mosk)
PMID:[LTR retrotransposons from genomes of Aspergillus fumigatus and A. nidulans]. 1824 May 65

In Drosophila the synthesis of antimicrobial peptides in response to microbial infections is under the control of the Toll and immune deficiency (Imd) signaling pathways. The Toll signaling pathway responds mainly to Gram-positive bacterial and fungal infection while the Imd pathway mediates the response to Gram-negative bacteria. Microbial recognition upstream of Toll involves, at least in part, peptidoglycan recognition proteins (PGRPs). The sensing of Gram-positive bacteria is mediated by the pattern recognition receptors PGRP-SA and Gram-negative binding protein 1 (GNBP1) that cooperate to detect the presence of lysine-type peptidoglycan in the host. Recently it has been shown that a loss-of-function mutation in peptidoglycan recognition protein SD (PGRP-SD) severely exacerbates the PGRP-SA and GNBP1 mutant phenotypes. Here we have solved the crystal structure of PGRP-SD at 1.5A resolution. Comparison with available structures of PGRPs in complex with their peptidoglycan (PGN) ligand strongly suggests a diaminopimelic acid (DAP) specificity for PGRP-SD. This result is supported by pull-down assays with insoluble PGNs. In addition we show that Toll pathway activation after infection by DAP-type PGN containing bacteria is clearly reduced in PGRP-SD mutant flies. Our hypothesis is that the role of PGRP-SD is the recognition of DAP-type PGNs responsible for the activation of the Toll pathway by Gram-negative bacteria.
Mol Immunol 2008 May
PMID:Crystal structure of Drosophila PGRP-SD suggests binding to DAP-type but not lysine-type peptidoglycan. 1830 40

Epicuticular lipids in many terrestrial arthropods consist of vast numbers of polar and non-polar aliphatic compounds, which are mainly responsible for the water balance in these animals but can also affect conidia germination of entomopathogenic fungi. In this work the qualitative and quantitative profiles of cuticular fatty acids from three insect species differing in their susceptibility to fungal infection were studied. In an innovative approach, laser light scattering detection was coupled with HPLC in order to identify the non-chromophoric chemicals usually present in cuticular extracts. The acids identified contained from 5 to 20 carbon atoms in the alkyl chain and included unsaturated entities such as C(16:1), C(18:1), C(18:2), C(18:3) and C(20:1). There was a marked dominance of acids containing 16-18 carbon atoms. The relative contents of fatty acids in the extracted waxes varied from trace amounts to 44%. Cuticular fatty acids profile of Calliphora vicina (species resistant to fungal infection) significantly differs from profiles of Dendrolimus pini and Galleria mellonella (both species highly susceptible to fungal infection). The major difference is the presence of C(14:0), C(16:1) and C(20:0) in the cuticle of C. vicina. These three fatty acids are absent in the cuticle of D. pini while G. mellonella cuticle contains their traces. The concentrations of four fatty acids dominating in the G. mellonella larval cuticle (C(16:0), C(18:0), C(18:1) and C(18:2)) were found to fluctuate during the final larval instar and correlate with fluctuations in the susceptibility of larvae to fungal infection. The possible role of cuticular fatty acids in preventing fungal infection is discussed.
Insect Biochem Mol Biol 2008 Jun
PMID:The cuticular fatty acids of Calliphora vicina, Dendrolimus pini and Galleria mellonella larvae and their role in resistance to fungal infection. 1851 Sep 73


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