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Updated: Jul 8, 2025

Screening and Identification of RNA Silencing Suppressors from Secreted Effectors of Plant Pathogens
Published on: February 3, 2020
A fungal RNA-dependent RNA polymerase is a novel player in plant infection and cross-kingdom RNA interference
An-Po Cheng1, Bernhard Lederer1, Lorenz Oberkofler1
1Institute of Genetics, Faculty of Biology, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Martinsried, Germany.
Abstract:
Small RNAs act as fungal pathogen effectors that silence host target genes to promote infection, a virulence mechanism termed cross-kingdom RNA interference (RNAi). The essential pathogen factors of cross-kingdom small RNA production are largely unknown. We here characterized the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RDR)1 in the fungal plant pathogen Botrytis cinerea that is required for pathogenicity and cross-kingdom RNAi. B. cinerea bcrdr1 knockout (ko) mutants exhibited reduced pathogenicity and loss of cross-kingdom small RNAs. We developed a "switch-on" GFP reporter to study cross-kingdom RNAi in real-time within the living plant tissue which highlighted that bcrdr1 ko mutants were compromised in cross-kingdom RNAi. Moreover, blocking seven pathogen cross-kingdom small RNAs by expressing a short-tandem target mimic RNA in transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana led to reduced infection levels of the fungal pathogen B. cinerea and the oomycete pathogen Hyaloperonospora arabidopsidis. These results demonstrate that cross-kingdom RNAi is significant to promote host infection and making pathogen small RNAs an effective target for crop protection.
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