Host-Induced Gene Silencing of a Multifunction Gene Enhances Plant Resistance Against .

is a devastating necrotrophic fungal pathogen and has a substantial economic impact on crop production worldwide. Magnaporthe appressoria-specific (MAS) proteins have been suggested to be involved in the appressorium formation in . , an MAS homolog gene, is highly induced at the early infection stage of . Knock-down the expression of gene severely reduced the virulence of on intact rapeseed leaves, and their virulence was partially restored on wounded leaves. The gene-silenced strains exhibited a defect in compound appressorium formation and cell integrity. The instantaneous silencing of by tobacco rattle virus (TRV)-mediated host-induced gene silencing (HIGS) resulted in a significant reduction in disease development in tobacco. Three transgenic HIGS lines displayed high levels of resistance to and decreased expression. Production of specific siRNA in transgenic HIGS lines was confirmed by stem-loop qRT-PCR. This study revealed that the compound appressoriumrelated gene is required for cell integrity and full virulence in and that Sclerotinia stem rot can be controlled by expressing the silencing constructs of in host plants.