The ABC transporter BcatrB from Botrytis cinerea exports camalexin and is a virulence factor on Arabidopsis thaliana |
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Authors: | Francesca L. Stefanato,Eliane Abou-Mansour,Antony Buchala,Matthias Kretschmer,reas Mosbach,Matthias Hahn,Christian G. Bochet,Jean-Pierre Mé traux, Henk-jan Schoonbeek |
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Affiliation: | Department of Biology, University of Fribourg, Chemin du Musée 8, CH-1700 Fribourg, Switzerland;, Fachbereich Biologie, Technische Universität Kaiserslautern, Postfach 3049, D-67653 Kaiserslautern, Germany;, and Department of Chemistry, University of Fribourg, Chemin du Musée 8, CH-1700 Fribourg, Switzerland |
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Abstract: | Arabidopsis thaliana is known to produce the phytoalexin camalexin in response to abiotic and biotic stress. Here we studied the mechanisms of tolerance to camalexin in the fungus Botrytis cinerea , a necrotrophic pathogen of A. thaliana . Exposure of B. cinerea to camalexin induces expression of BcatrB , an ABC transporter that functions in the efflux of fungitoxic compounds. B. cinerea inoculated on wild-type A. thaliana plants yields smaller lesions than on camalexin-deficient A. thaliana mutants. A B. cinerea strain lacking functional BcatrB is more sensitive to camalexin in vitro and less virulent on wild-type plants, but is still fully virulent on camalexin-deficient mutants. Pre-treatment of A. thaliana with UV-C leads to increased camalexin accumulation and substantial resistance to B. cinerea. UV-C-induced resistance was not seen in the camalexin-deficient mutants cyp79B2/B3 , cyp71A13 , pad3 or pad2 , and was strongly reduced in ups1 . Here we demonstrate that an ABC transporter is a virulence factor that increases tolerance of the pathogen towards a phytoalexin, and the complete restoration of virulence on host plants lacking this phytoalexin. |
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Keywords: | grey mould phytoalexin resistance plant pathology plant defence pathogenicity fungal infection |
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