Silencing of Six Hydrophobins in Cladosporium fulvum: Complexities of Simultaneously Targeting Multiple Genes

In this study, we have constructed and expressed inverted repeat chimeras from the first exons of the six known hydrophobins of the fungus Cladosporium fulvum, the causal agent of tomato leaf mold. We used quantitative PCR to measure specifically the expression levels of the hydrophobins. The targeted genes are silenced to different degrees, but we also detected clear changes in the expression levels of nontargeted genes. This work highlights the difficulties that are likely to be encountered when attempting to silence more than one gene in a multigene family.