Host-induced gene silencing in the necrotrophic fungal pathogen Sclerotinia sclerotiorum

Sclerotinia sclerotiorum is a necrotrophic fungus that causes a devastating disease called white mould, infecting more than 450 plant species worldwide. Control of this disease with fungicides is limited, so host plant resistance is the preferred alternative for disease management. However, due to the nature of the disease, breeding programmes have had limited success. A potential alternative to developing necrotrophic fungal resistance is the use of host-induced gene silencing (HIGS) methods, which involves host expression of dsRNA-generating constructs directed against genes in the pathogen. In this study, the target gene chosen was chitin synthase (chs), which commands the synthesis of chitin, the polysaccharide that is a crucial structural component of the cell walls of many fungi. Tobacco plants were transformed with an interfering intron-containing hairpin RNA construct for silencing the fungal chs gene. Seventy-two hours after inoculation, five transgenic lines showed a reduction in disease severity ranging from 555 to 867% compared with the non-transgenic lines. The lesion area did not show extensive progress over this time (up to 120h). Disease resistance and silencing of the fungal chs gene was positively correlated with the presence of detectable siRNA in the transgenic lines. It was demonstrated that expression of endogenous genes from the very aggressive necrotrophic fungus S. sclerotiorum could be prevented by host induced silencing. HIGS of the fungal chitin synthase gene can generate white mould-tolerant plants. From a biotechnological perspective, these results open new prospects for the development of transgenic plants resistant to necrotrophic fungal pathogens.