Open AccessSpray-Induced Gene Silencing as a Potential Tool to Control Potato Late Blight Disease
Author(s) -
Pruthvi B. Kalyandurg,
Poorva Sundararajan,
Mukesh Dubey,
Farideh Ghadamgahi,
Muhammad Awais Zahid,
Stephen C. Whisson,
Ramesh R. Vetukuri
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
phytopathology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.264
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1943-7684
pISSN - 0031-949X
DOI - 10.1094/phyto-02-21-0054-sc
Subject(s) - phytophthora infestans , biology , blight , gene , gene silencing , green fluorescent protein , rna silencing , genetics , rna interference , botany , rna
Phytophthora infestans causes late blight disease on potato and tomato and is currently controlled by resistant cultivars or intensive fungicide spraying. Here, we investigated an alternative means for late blight control by spraying potato leaves with double-stranded RNAs (dsRNA) that target the P. infestans genes essential for infection. First, we showed that the sporangia of P. infestans expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP) can take up in vitro synthesized dsRNAs homologous to GFP directly from their surroundings, including leaves, which led to the reduced relative expression of GFP. We further demonstrate the potential of spray-induced gene silencing (SIGS) in controlling potato late blight disease by targeting developmentally important genes in P. infestans such as guanine-nucleotide binding protein β-subunit (PiGPB1), haustorial membrane protein (PiHmp1), cutinase (PiCut3), and endo-1,3(4)-β-glucanase (PiEndo3). Our results demonstrate that SIGS can potentially be used to mitigate potato late blight; however, the degree of disease control is dependent on the selection of the target genes. [Formula: see text] Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license .