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Dutch Elm Disease
Transcriptomic and functional approaches to study host-pathogen interactions to unveil Dutch Elm Disease.
Focus 1: Large scale functional genomics of elm graphiosis agents.
Unraveling the Transcriptional Features and Gene Expression Networks of Pathogenic and Saprotrophic Ophiostoma Species During the Infection of Ulmus americana.
de Oliveira et al., 2024, Microbiol. Spec.
Main goal: Ophiostoma is a genus of cosmopolitan fungi that belongs to the family Ophiostomataceae and includes the pathogens responsible for two devastating pandemics of Dutch elm disease (DED). As the mechanisms of action of DED agents remain unclear, we carried out the first comparative transcriptomic study including representative strains of the three Ophiostoma species causing DED, along with the phylogenetically close saprotrophic species Ophiostoma quercus.
Results: We observed taxon-specific transcriptome profiles, with transcriptomes of the saprotroph O. quercus significantly different from transcriptomes of DED pathogens. For the pathogenic taxa analyzed, the transcriptome variations were not associated with phylogenetic relationships. We observed marked differences among the Ophiostoma transcriptomes and identified several candidate genes that might be involved in the parasitic fitness of the DED pathogens.
Exploration of the transcriptional characteristics and gene expression networks of Ulmus americana during infection by pathogenic and saprotrophic Ophiostoma species.
de Oliveira et al., 2024, will be submitted to Journal of Experimental Botany.
Main goal: A key objective of the project was to provide a genome-wide assessment of the molecular mechanisms underlying the high level of resistance observed in elms to Dutch elm disease (DED).
Results: Here we report on the transcriptomes of the host in response to these fungal strains. In addition to applying the usual statistical tests for comparing transcriptomes, we analysed the Ulmus americana - O. ulmi and U. americana - O. novo-ulmi interactions by way of Co-occurrence Network inference (CoNet). Elm transcriptomes were significantly influenced by the species and lineage of DED pathogens that had been inoculated.
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