AUTHOR=He Fuxin , Zhang Ruiming , Zhao Jiaxin , Qi Tuo , Kang Zhensheng , Guo Jun 

TITLE=Host-Induced Silencing of Fusarium graminearum Genes Enhances the Resistance of Brachypodium distachyon to Fusarium Head Blight

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science

VOLUME=Volume 10 - 2019

YEAR=2019

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2019.01362

DOI=10.3389/fpls.2019.01362

ISSN=1664-462X

ABSTRACT=Fusarium head blight (FHB) caused by Fusarium pathogens are devastating diseases worldwide. In recent years, the development of host-induced gene silencing (HIGS) technology has provided a new strategy for the ecological sound, stable and long-lasting control of FHB. In this study, we constructed transgenic Brachypodium distachyon lines carrying RNAi cassettes to target two essential protein kinase genes Fg00677 and Fg08731, and cytochrome P450 lanosterol C14-α-demethylase (CYP51) encoding genes (CYP51A, CYP51B and CYP51C) of F. graminearum, respectively. Northern blotting confirmed the presence of short interfering RNAs (siRNA) derived from Fg00677, Fg08731 and CYP51 in transgenic B. distachyon plants, and the transcript levels of the corresponding genes were down-regulated in the F. graminearum colonizing B. distachyon spikes. All the corresponding independent, Fg00677-RNAi, Fg08731-RNAi and CYP51-RNAi transgenic T2 lines exhibited strong resistance to F. graminearum, suggesting that silencing molecules produced by transgenic plants inhibited the corresponding gene function by down-regulating its expression, thereby reducing pathogenicity. Our results indicate that Fg00677 and Fg08731 are effective targets for HIGS and can be applied to construct transgenic HIGS materials to enhance FHB resistance in wheat and other cereal crops.