( changes that occur in the cell wall of...)Tearing down the fungal cell wall

changes that occur in the cell wall of the spores, a decrease in spore germination rate, lower survival rates for the spores under adverse environmental conditions, and a reduced ability of the fungus to damage the host plant. These observations may open up a route to develop new and innovative research strategies aimed at understanding the host-pathogen interaction for this destructive plant pathogen."

The investigators used a wide range of experimental approaches to look in detail at the link between the function of the gene and its impact on the structure of the spore cell wall. A recently developed gene disruption method was used to generate the fungal mutants (See "New method enables gene disruption in destructive fungal pathogen" at www.vbi.vt.edu/article/articleview/538/1/15/). Bioinformatic and gene prediction tools were applied to probe the structure and organization of the AbNPS2 gene and the surrounding region in the recently sequenced A. brassicicola genome, a collaborative project nearing completion with Washington University Genome Sequencing Center in St. Louis. Electron microscopy revealed some of the dramatic structural changes in the cell wall arising from disruption of the gene.

Dr. Nancy Keller, Professor in the Department of Plant Pathology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and international expert in fungal secondary metabolism, commented: "The finding that a non-ribosomal peptide synthetase is integral to conidial morphology further illustrates the versatile and essential role of these secondary metabolites in fungal biology. For years long ignored, the function of natural products is rapidly becoming one of the hot topics in fungal biology; the findings reported in this study by Dr. Lawrence's research group further underline their importance."

The AbNPS2 gene encodes a large protein known as a non-ribosomal peptide synthetase. This protein
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Source:Virginia Tech

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