Evidence for involvement of Dicer-like, Argonaute and histone deacetylase proteins in gene silencing in Phytophthora infestans

Ramesh R. Vetukuri, Anna O. Avrova, Laura Joy Grenville-Briggs, Pieter van West, Fredrik Soderbom, Eugene I. Savenkov, Stephen C. Whisson, Christina Dixelius

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

49 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Gene silencing may have a direct or indirect impact on many biological processes in eukaryotic cells, and is a useful tool for the determination of the roles of specific genes. In this article, we report silencing in Phytophthora infestans, an oomycete pathogen of potato and tomato. Gene silencing is known to occur in P. infestans, but its genetic basis has yet to be determined. Genes
encoding the major components of the RNA interference (RNAi) pathway, Dicer-like (Pidcl1), Argonaute (Piago1–5) and RNAdirected RNA polymerase (Pirdr1), were identified in the P. infestans genome by comparative genomics, together with families of other genes potentially involved in gene silencing, such as histone deacetylases, histone methyltransferases, DEAD helicases, chromodomain proteins and a class 1 RNaseIII. Real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction demonstrated transcript accumulation for all candidate genes throughout the asexual lifecycle and plant infection, but at different levels of mRNA abundance. A functional assay was developed in which silencing of the sporulation-associated Picdc14 gene was released by the treatment of protoplasts with in vitrosynthesized double-stranded RNAs homologous to Pidcl1, Piago1/2 and histone deacetylase Pihda1. These results suggest that the components of gene silencing, namely Dicer-like, Argonaute and histone deacetylase, are functional in P. infestans. Our data demonstrate that this oomycete possesses canonical gene silencing pathways similar to those of other eukaryotes.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)772-785
Number of pages14
JournalMolecular Plant Pathology
Volume12
Issue number8
Early online date29 Mar 2011
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Oct 2011

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