Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA.
Science. 2013 Oct 4;342(6154):118-23. doi: 10.1126/science.1239705.
Botrytis cinerea, the causative agent of gray mold disease, is an aggressive fungal pathogen that infects more than 200 plant species. Here, we show that some B. cinerea small RNAs (Bc-sRNAs) can silence Arabidopsis and tomato genes involved in immunity. These Bc-sRNAs hijack the host RNA interference (RNAi) machinery by binding to Arabidopsis Argonaute 1 (AGO1) and selectively silencing host immunity genes. The Arabidopsis ago1 mutant exhibits reduced susceptibility to B. cinerea, and the B. cinerea dcl1 dcl2 double mutant that can no longer produce these Bc-sRNAs displays reduced pathogenicity on Arabidopsis and tomato. Thus, this fungal pathogen transfers "virulent" sRNA effectors into host plant cells to suppress host immunity and achieve infection, which demonstrates a naturally occurring cross-kingdom RNAi as an advanced virulence mechanism.
灰葡萄孢(Botrytis cinerea)是一种侵袭性真菌病原体,可感染 200 多种植物。在这里,我们发现一些灰葡萄孢小 RNA(Bc-sRNAs)可以沉默拟南芥和番茄中的免疫相关基因。这些 Bc-sRNAs 通过与拟南芥 Argonaute 1(AGO1)结合并选择性沉默宿主免疫基因,劫持了宿主的 RNA 干扰(RNAi)机制。拟南芥 ago1 突变体对灰葡萄孢的敏感性降低,而无法产生这些 Bc-sRNAs 的灰葡萄孢 dcl1 dcl2 双突变体在拟南芥和番茄上的致病性降低。因此,这种真菌病原体将“毒性”sRNA 效应子转移到宿主植物细胞中,以抑制宿主免疫并实现感染,这表明自然发生的跨物种 RNAi 是一种先进的毒力机制。