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Control of brown patch (Rhizoctonia solani) in tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) by host induced gene silencing

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Transgenic tall fescue plants expressing RNAi constructs of essential genes of Rhizoctonia solani were resistant to R. solani.

Abstract

Tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) is an important turf and forage grass species widely used for home lawns and on golf courses in North Carolina and other transition zone states in the US. The most serious and frequently occurring disease of tall fescue is brown patch, caused by a basidiomycete fungus, Rhizoctonia solani. This research demonstrates resistance to brown patch disease achieved by the application of host induced gene silencing. We transformed tall fescue with RNAi constructs of four experimentally determined “essential” genes from R. solani (including genes encoding RNA polymerase, importin beta-1 subunit, Cohesin complex subunit Psm1, and a ubiquitin E3 ligase) to suppress expression of those genes inside the fungus and thus inhibit fungal infection. Four gene constructs were tested, and 19 transgenic plants were obtained, among which 12 plants had detectable accumulation of siRNAs of the target genes. In inoculation tests, six plants displayed significantly improved resistance against R. solani. Lesion size was reduced by as much as 90 %. Plants without RNAi accumulation did not show resistance. To our knowledge, this is the first case that RNAi constructs of pathogen genes introduced into a host plant can confer resistance against a necrotrophic fungus.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Dr. Lane Tredway for providing the inoculum and guiding the inoculation tests, to Dr. Consuelo Arellano for guidance on statistical analysis of the inoculation data, and to Dr. Minesh Patel for help with molecular techniques. We also thank Dr. Marc Cubeta for use of his R. solani genome sequence database prior to publication, Dr. Casey Reynolds for his help using SigmaScan software to collect disease symptom data, and NCSU Phytotron for the facility and care of the plants. The project is funded by NCSU Center for Turfgrass Environmental Research and Education.

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Correspondence to Rongda Qu.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Communicated by B. Li.

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Zhou, B., Bailey, A., Niblett, C.L. et al. Control of brown patch (Rhizoctonia solani) in tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) by host induced gene silencing. Plant Cell Rep 35, 791–802 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-015-1921-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-015-1921-7

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