Functional Characterization of Polyketide-Derived
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FUNCTIONAL CHARACTERIZATION OF POLYKETIDE-DERIVED SECONDARY METABOLITES SOLANAPYRONES PRODUCED BY THE CHICKPEA BLIGHT PATHOGEN, ASCOCHYTA RABIEI: GENETICS AND CHEMICAL ECOLOGY By WONYONG KIM A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY Department of Plant Pathology AUGUST 2015 To the Faculty of Washington State University: The members of the Committee appointed to examine the dissertation of WONYONG KIM find it satisfactory and recommend that it be accepted ___________________________________ Weidong Chen, Ph.D., Chair ___________________________________ Tobin L. Peever, Ph.D. ___________________________________ George J. Vandemark, Ph.D. ___________________________________ Lee A. Hadwiger, Ph.D. ___________________________________ Ming Xian, Ph.D. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I take this opportunity to thank my major advisor, Dr. Weidong Chen. I have learned a tremendous amount from him in framing hypothesis and critical thinking in science. He gave me every possible opportunity to attend conferences to present my research and interact with scientific communities. I would also like to thank my committee members Drs. Tobin L. Peever, George J. Va ndemark, Lee A. Hadwiger and Ming Xian for their open-door policy when questions arose and for giving me ideas and suggestions that helped develop this dissertation research. I am very fortunate to have such a nice group of committee members who are experts each in their own fields such as Systematics, Genetics, Molecular Biology and Chemistry. Without their expertise and helps the research presented in this dissertation could not have been carried out. I thank to Drs. Jeong-Jin Park and Chung-Min Park for long term collaboration during my doctoral study and being as good friends. Drs. Frank M. Dugan and Akamatsu O. Hajime were also invaluable sources of advice and research materials. I thank to Dr. Lori M. Carris as her Mycology class introduced me to the wondrous world of fungi. I am also appreciative of the the support that I received from the Department of Plant Pathology in Washington State University, the USDA Cool Season Food Legume Research Program, and the USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council. Special thanks to my labmates, Liangsheng Xu, Renuka Attanayake, and Tony Chen, for their technical as well as emotional supports. iii Lastly, but most importantly, I thank my parents, Hyung-wook Kim and Seong-joo Yeo, for their loving support and continuous sacrifices throughout my life. They from an early age gave me inspiration to study agricultural science and be a person who contributes to the society in which we live. This encouraged me to continue during rough times. Special acknowledgement goes to my wife, Eunju Nam, for her understanding, encouragement and love, and lots of love to our son, Jung-wee. iv FUNCTIONAL CHARACTERIZATION OF POLYKETIDE-DERIVED SECONDARY METABOLITES SOLANAPYRONES PRODUCED BY THE CHICKPEA BLIGHT PATHOGEN, ASCOCHYTA RABIEI: GENETICS AND CHEMICAL ECOLOGY Abstract by Wonyong Kim, Ph.D. Washington State University August 2015 Chair: Weidong Chen Ascochyta rabiei causes Ascochyta blight of chickpea. The pathogen is known to produce polyketide-derived secondary metabolites, solanapyrones A, B and C, of which solanapyrone A has long been considered a key virulence factor in the chickpea-A. rabiei interaction, due to its phytotoxicity to chickpea. In order to determine the role of solanapyrones during infection process, solanapyrone-minus mutants were generated from A. rabiei strains of different pathotypes by targeting sol5 and sol4 genes, which encode the last step enzyme and a pathway-specific regulator for solanapyrone biosynthesis, respectively. In addition, phytotoxicity of solanapyrones was examined with various legumes including chickpea plants with varying degree of resistance to the disease. As a result, purified solanapyrone A showed a broad spectrum of phytotoxicity, causing necrotic lesions on all tested plants. The resulting solanapyrone-minus mutants were equally virulent as their corresponding wild-type progenitors, indicating that v solanapyrone A is neither a host-selective toxin nor a virulence factor of A. rabiei. Despite the dispensability in parasitic growth of the pathogen, solanapyrones are produced by all strains investigated in this and several previous studies. The universal production of solanapyrones prompted us to examine possible ecological roles other than parasitism. Synteny analyses of A. rabiei genome with genomes of related species revealed that the solanapyrone biosynthesis gene cluster was placed in a ‘genomic island’, where genes implicated in niche adaptation are often found. The expressions levels of the solanapyrone cluster genes were high during saprobic growth, but negligible during infection processes. Also, the gene expressions culminated at the formation of pycnidia, indicating that solanapyrones are produced in a growth and tissue-specific manner. To investigate ecological roles of solanapyrones, wild-type strains or solanapyrone-minus mutants were co-cultured with saprobic fungi that have been isolated from chickpea debris left in a field. Wild-type strains effectively suppressed the growth of the saprobic fungi, whereas solanapyrone-minus mutants did not. The half maximal inhibitory concentration of solanapyrone A against the saprobic fungi ranged from 50 to 80 μM. These results suggest that solanapyrone A plays an important role in competition and presumably in survival of the pathogen in nature. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................................... iii ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................... v LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................. x LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................... xi PREFACE .............................................................................................................................. xvii CHAPTER 1: Introduction General Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1 References ...................................................................................................................... 26 CHAPTER 2: Functional Analyses of the Diels-Alderase Gene sol5 of Ascochyta rabiei and Alternaria solani Indicate that the Solanapyrone Phytotoxins Are Not Required for pathogenicity Abstract ........................................................................................................................... 38 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 39 Materials and Methods ................................................................................................... 43 Results ............................................................................................................................ 55 Discussion ....................................................................................................................... 62 Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................ 69 References ...................................................................................................................... 85 vii CHAPTER 3: Genomic Analysis of Ascochyta rabiei Identifies Dynamic Genome Environments of Solanapyrone Biosynthesis Gene Cluster and a Novel Type of Pathway-specific Regulator Abstract ........................................................................................................................... 92 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 93 Materials and Methods ................................................................................................... 97 Results ............................................................................................................................ 103 Discussion ....................................................................................................................... 110 Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................ 118 References ...................................................................................................................... 136 CHAPTER 4: Growth and Tissue-specific Production of a Secondary Metabolite, Solanapyrone A, and Its Ecological Role during Saprobic Growth of the Fungal Pathogen, Ascochyta rabiei Abstract ........................................................................................................................... 145 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 146 Materials and Methods ................................................................................................... 149 Results ............................................................................................................................ 156 Discussion ......................................................................................................................