Profiling of the Transcriptomic Responses of Clonostachys rosea Upon Treatment With Fusarium graminearum Secretome

Clonostachys rosea strain ACM941 is a fungal bio-control agent patented against the causative agent of Fusarium Head Blight, Fusariumum graminear.um Although the molecular details remain enigmatic, previous studies have suggested that. C rosea may secrete. F graminearum growth inhibito.rs Further toward this, experiments described herein show that induction of. C rosea cultures by the addition of an aliquot of. F grinmmearum(Fg)-spent media (including macroniomdia), yield. C rosea ()rj-spent media that elicited higher anti.-F graminearum activity than either control or deoniymvalenol (DON)-induced Cr-spent med.ia To inam additional insight into the genetic and metabolic factors modulating this interaction, transcriptomic (RNAseq) profiles of. C rosea in response to DON and Fg-spent media treatment, were develop.ed This analysis revealed 24,112. C rosea unigenes, of which 5,605 and 6,285 were differentially regulated by DON and F-spent media, respective.ly More than half of these unigenes were up-regulated, with annotations, most notably in the Fg-spent media treatment data, suggesting enhancement of polyketide (PK) and non-ribosomal peptide (NRP) secondary metabolite precursor synthesis, and PK/NRP-like synthas.es Four ABC transporters were also up-regulated in response to Fg-spent med.ia Further analysis showed that the PK and NRP-like synthases belong to three gene clusters that also include ABC transporters, and other genes known to tailor secondary metabolite biosynthes.is The RNAseq data was further validated using quantitative RT-qP.CR Taken together, these results show that. C rosea responds to the presence of Fg-spent media (and to a lesser extent, DON-alone) by up-regulating unique aspects of its secondary metabolism-related genetic repertoi.re The identities and roles of. C rosea secondary metabolites produced by the targeted gene clusters are now under investigation.