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Investigating the Role of Trehalose Metabolism in Resistance to Abiotic Stress in the Filamentous Fungus Fusarium verticillioides
Author(s) -
Oberlie Nicole Ruth,
McMillan Sarah D.,
Brown Daren W.,
McQuade Kristi L.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.2018.32.1_supplement.665.3
Subject(s) - trehalose , desiccation , biology , spore , wild type , microbiology and biotechnology , fusarium , oxidative stress , pathogen , strain (injury) , biochemistry , mutant , botany , gene , anatomy
Fusarium verticillioides is a maize pathogen that synthesizes toxic secondary metabolites called fumonisins, which can contaminate grain and cause disease in livestock and humans. We showed previously that an F. verticillioides strain (Δ tps1 ) that lacks the gene coding for trehalose‐6‐phosphate (T6P) synthase produces no trehalose, has reduced pathogenicity, and produces significantly less fumonisins than wild type. Here, we characterize the effects of various abiotic stresses on spore viability and growth rates of the wild‐type and Δ tps1 strains as well as strains expressing a catalytically inactive form of T6P synthase, which are also trehalose deficient. We show using a colony count assay that desiccation decreases the viability of spores from trehalose‐deficient strains significantly more than spores from the wild‐type strain. Likewise, oxidative stress‐inducing compounds reduce both the growth rate and maximum culture density of trehalose‐deficient strains more than the wild‐type strain. Live/dead fluorescence staining indicates that oxidative stress decreases the viability of trehalose‐deficient strains more significantly than wild type. Together, these data suggest that trehalose is critical for tolerance to desiccation and oxidative stress in F. verticillioides . This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal .