global regulation of mycotoxin accumulation during pathogenicity of Penicillium expansum in postharvest fruits
Authors: Prusky Dov , Keller Nancy P. , Sherman Amir 
Published: January 2022

Background to the topic- Penicilliumas a postharvest pathogen and producer of the mycotoxin PAT. Penicilliumspp. are destructive phytopathogens, capable of causing decay in many deciduous fruits, during postharvest handling and storage; and the resulting losses can amount to 10% of the stored produce and the accumulation of large amounts of the mycotoxinpatulin. The overall goal of this proposal is to identify critical host and pathogen factors that modulate P. expansummycotoxin genes and pathways which are required for PAT production and virulence. Our preliminary results indicated that gluconic acid are strongly affecting patulin accumulation during colonization. P. expansumacidifies apple fruit tissue during colonization in part through secretion of gluconic acid (GLA). Several publications suggested that GLA accumulation is an essential factor in P. expansumpathogenicity. Furthermore, down regulation of GOX2 significantly reduced PAT accumulation and pathogenicity. PAT is a polyketide and its biosynthesis pathway includes a 15-gene cluster. LaeA is a global regulator of mycotoxin synthesis. It is now known that patulin synthesis might be subjected to LaeA and sometimes by environmental sensing global regulatory factors including the carbon catabolite repressor CreA as well as the pH regulator factor PacC and nitrogen regulator AreA. The mechanisms by which LaeA regulates patulin synthesis was not fully known and was part of our work. Furthermore, the regulatory system that controls gene expression in accordance with ambient pH was also included in our work. PacC protein is in an inactive conformation and is unable to bind to the promoter sites of the target genes; however, under alkaline growth conditions activated PacC acts as both an activator of alkaline-expressed genes and a repressor of acid-expressed genes. The aims of the project- This project aims to provide new insights on the roles of LaeA and PacC and their signaling pathways that lead to GLA and PAT biosynthesis and pathogenicity on the host. Specifically, our specific aims were: i) To elucidate the mechanism of pH-controlled regulation of GLA and PAT, and their contribution to pathogenesis of P. expansum. We are interested to understanding how pH and/or GLA impact/s under PacC regulation affect PAT production and pathogenesis. ii) To characterize the role of LaeA, the global regulator of mycotoxin production, and its effect on PAT and PacC activity. iii) To identify the signaling pathways leading to GLA and PAT synthesis. Using state- of-the-art RNAseq technologies, we will interrogate the transcriptomes of laeAand pacCmutants, to identify the common signaling pathways regulating synthesis of both GLA and PAT. Major conclusions, solutions, achievements- In our first Aim our results demonstrated that ammonia secreted at the leading edge of the fungal colony induced transcript activation of the global pH modulator PacC and PAT accumulation in the presence of GLA. We assessed these parameters by: (i) direct exogenous treatment of P. expansumgrowing on solid medium; (ii) direct exogenous treatment on colonized apple tissue; (iii) growth under self-ammonia production conditions with limited carbon; and (iv) analysis of the transcriptional response to ammonia of the PAT biosynthesis cluster. Ammonia induced PAT accumulation concurrently with the transcript activation of pacCand PAT biosynthesis cluster genes, indicating the regulatory effect of ammonia on pacCtranscript expression under acidic conditions. Transcriptomic analysis of pH regulated processes showed that important genes and BARD Report - Project 4773 Page 2 of 10 functionalities of P. expansumwere controlled by environmental pH. The differential expression patterns of genes belonging to the same gene family suggest that genes were selectively activated according to their optimal environmental conditions to enable the fungus to cope with varying conditions and to make optimal use of available enzymes. Concerning the second and third Aims, we demonstrated that LaeA regulates several secondary metabolite genes, including the PAT gene cluster and concomitant PAT synthesis invitro. Virulence studies of ΔlaeAmutants of two geographically distant P. expansumisolates (Pe-21 from Israel and Pe-T01 from China) showed differential reduction in disease severity in freshly harvested fruit ranging from no reduction for Ch-Pe-T01 strains in immature fruit to 15–25% reduction for both strains in mature fruit, with the ΔlaeAstrains of Is-Pe-21 always showing a greater loss in virulence. Results suggest the importance of LaeA regulation of PAT and other secondary metabolites on pathogenicity. Our work also characterized for the first time the role of sucrose, a key nutritional factor present in apple fruit, as a negative regulator of laeAexpression and consequent PAT production in vitro. This is the first report of sugar regulation of laeAexpression, suggesting that its expression may be subject to catabolite repression by CreA. Some, but not all of the 54 secondary metabolite backbone genes in the P. expansumgenome, including the PAT polyketide backbone gene, were found to be regulated by LaeA. Together, these findings enable for the first time a straight analysis of a host factor that potentially activates laeAand subsequent PAT synthesis.