TY - JOUR
T1 - Botrytis cinerea combines four molecular strategies to tolerate membrane-permeating plant compounds and to increase virulence
AU - You, Yaohua
AU - Suraj, H.M.
AU - Matz, Linda
AU - Herrera Valderrama, A.L.
AU - Ruigrok, Paul
AU - Shi-Kunne, Xiaoqian
AU - Pieterse, Frank P.J.
AU - Oostlander, Anne
AU - Beenen, Henriek G.
AU - Chavarro-Carrero, Edgar A.
AU - Qin, Si
AU - Verstappen, Francel W.A.
AU - Kappers, Iris F.
AU - Fleißner, André
AU - van Kan, Jan A.L.
PY - 2024/7/31
Y1 - 2024/7/31
N2 - Saponins are plant secondary metabolites comprising glycosylated triterpenoids, steroids or steroidal alkaloids with a broad spectrum of toxicity to microbial pathogens and pest organisms that contribute to basal plant defense to biotic attack. Secretion of glycosyl hydrolases that enzymatically convert saponins into less toxic products was thus far the only mechanism reported to enable fungal pathogens to colonize their saponin-containing host plant(s). We studied the mechanisms that the fungus Botrytis cinerea utilizes to be tolerant to well-characterized, structurally related saponins from tomato and Digitalis purpurea. By gene expression studies, comparative genomics, enzyme assays and testing a large panel of fungal (knockout and complemented) mutants, we unraveled four distinct cellular mechanisms that participate in the mitigation of the toxic activity of these saponins and in virulence on saponin-producing host plants. The enzymatic deglycosylation that we identified is novel and unique to this fungus-saponin combination. The other three tolerance mechanisms operate in the fungal membrane and are mediated by protein families that are widely distributed in the fungal kingdom. We present a spatial and temporal model on how these mechanisms jointly confer tolerance to saponins and discuss the repercussions of these findings for other plant pathogenic fungi, as well as human pathogens.
AB - Saponins are plant secondary metabolites comprising glycosylated triterpenoids, steroids or steroidal alkaloids with a broad spectrum of toxicity to microbial pathogens and pest organisms that contribute to basal plant defense to biotic attack. Secretion of glycosyl hydrolases that enzymatically convert saponins into less toxic products was thus far the only mechanism reported to enable fungal pathogens to colonize their saponin-containing host plant(s). We studied the mechanisms that the fungus Botrytis cinerea utilizes to be tolerant to well-characterized, structurally related saponins from tomato and Digitalis purpurea. By gene expression studies, comparative genomics, enzyme assays and testing a large panel of fungal (knockout and complemented) mutants, we unraveled four distinct cellular mechanisms that participate in the mitigation of the toxic activity of these saponins and in virulence on saponin-producing host plants. The enzymatic deglycosylation that we identified is novel and unique to this fungus-saponin combination. The other three tolerance mechanisms operate in the fungal membrane and are mediated by protein families that are widely distributed in the fungal kingdom. We present a spatial and temporal model on how these mechanisms jointly confer tolerance to saponins and discuss the repercussions of these findings for other plant pathogenic fungi, as well as human pathogens.
U2 - 10.1038/s41467-024-50748-5
DO - 10.1038/s41467-024-50748-5
M3 - Article
C2 - 39085234
AN - SCOPUS:85200309957
SN - 2041-1723
VL - 15
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
M1 - 6448
ER -