Network and role analysis of autophagy in Phytophthora sojae

Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved mechanism in eukaryotes with roles in development and the virulence of plant fungal pathogens. However, few reports on autophagy in oomycete species have been published. Here, we identified 26 autophagy-related genes (ATGs) belonging to 20 different groups in Phytophthora sojae using a genome-wide survey, and core ATGs in oomycetes were used to construct a preliminary autophagy pathway model. Expression profile analysis revealed that these ATGs are broadly expressed and that the majority of them significantly increase during infection stages, suggesting a central role for autophagy in virulence. Autophagy in P. sojae was detected using a GFP-PsAtg8 fusion protein and the fluorescent dye MDC during rapamycin and starvation treatment. In addition, autophagy was significantly induced during sporangium formation and cyst germination. Silencing PsAtg6a in P. sojae significantly reduced sporulation and pathogenicity. Furthermore, a PsAtg6a-silenced strain showed haustorial formation defects. These results suggested that autophagy might play essential roles in both the development and infection mechanism of P. sojae.