Durak Muhammed Raşit, Özkılınç Hilal
School of Graduate Studies, M.Sc. Program in Molecular Biology and Genetics, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Çanakkale, 17100, Türkiye.
Department of Theoretical Biology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Plön, Germany.
Mob DNA. 2025 Mar 7;16(1):8. doi: 10.1186/s13100-025-00343-2.
Fungicide resistance poses a significant challenge to plant disease management and influences the evolutionary dynamics of fungal pathogens. Besides being important phytopathogens, Monilinia species have become a model for discovering many fundamental questions related to fungal pathosystems. In this study, DMI-propiconazole sensitivity was investigated in view of transposable element (TE) dynamics in M. fructicola and M. laxa.
Propiconazole-sensitivity of 109 M. fructicola and 20 M. laxa isolates from different regions of Türkiye was assessed. Comprehensive TE identification within the species revealed that Class I elements were predominant, and TEs constituted approximately 9% of the genome for both M. fructicola and M. laxa, with a total of 15,327 and 10,710 TEs, respectively. An experimental evolution plan was developed for Monilinia that allows observing phenotypic and genotypic changes over successive generations under controlled selection pressures. Dynamic changes in TE content were discovered throughout the experimental evolution of M. fructicola under propiconazole pressure. With a net change of 187 TEs, the evolved strain showed an expansion of TE sequences, whereas different TE classes displayed diverse patterns of increase/decrease. Additionally, the presence of a nested TE upstream of the CYP51 gene was observed in less-sensitive M. fructicola isolates but absent in highly-sensitive ones. Gene expressions of CYP51 differed significantly between TE-containing and TE-lacking isolates, strongly supporting the contribution of this TE to fungicide resistance.
This study establishes a critical link between TEs and DMI fungicide resistance by associating a nested TE with reduced sensitivity to propiconazole. We introduce an innovative experimental evolution framework for studying genomic changes under selective pressure and provide a comprehensive characterization of Monilinia TEs. These findings significantly advance our understanding of molecular resistance mechanisms in fungal pathogens, offering insights for more effective disease management.
杀菌剂抗性对植物病害管理构成重大挑战，并影响真菌病原体的进化动态。除了是重要的植物病原体外，链核盘菌属物种已成为发现许多与真菌致病系统相关的基本问题的模型。在本研究中，鉴于桃褐腐病菌和果生链核盘菌中转座元件（TE）的动态变化，对DMI-丙环唑敏感性进行了研究。
评估了来自土耳其不同地区的109株桃褐腐病菌和20株果生链核盘菌分离株对丙环唑的敏感性。对这些物种进行全面的TE鉴定发现，I类元件占主导地位，TEs分别占桃褐腐病菌和果生链核盘菌基因组的约9%，总数分别为15327个和10710个。为链核盘菌制定了一个实验进化计划，该计划允许在可控的选择压力下观察连续几代的表型和基因型变化。在丙环唑压力下桃褐腐病菌的整个实验进化过程中发现了TE含量的动态变化。进化菌株的TE序列有净增加187个，不同的TE类别呈现出不同的增减模式。此外，在敏感性较低的桃褐腐病菌分离株中观察到CYP51基因上游存在嵌套TE，但在高敏感性分离株中不存在。含TE和不含TE的分离株之间CYP51的基因表达存在显著差异，有力地支持了该TE对杀菌剂抗性的贡献。
本研究通过将嵌套TE与对丙环唑敏感性降低联系起来，建立了TEs与DMI杀菌剂抗性之间的关键联系。我们引入了一个创新的实验进化框架来研究选择性压力下的基因组变化，并对链核盘菌的TEs进行了全面表征。这些发现显著推进了我们对真菌病原体分子抗性机制的理解，为更有效的病害管理提供了见解。
