Poster: Molecular & Cellular Plant-Microbe Interactions: Proteomics/Metabolomics/Genomics
780-P
Transcriptomic analysis identifies specificity in Fusarium verticillioides metabolic response to Bacillus mojavensis lipopeptides
A. BLACUTT (1), S. Gold (2) (1) University of Georgia, U.S.A.; (2) USDA-ARS TMRU, U.S.A.
Fusarium verticillioides is a mycotoxigenic fungus capable of both pathogenic and asymptomatic endophytic lifestyles in maize; such intimate association renders efficient chemical control cost-prohibitive. Bacillus mojavensis RRC101 is a maize endophyte demonstrating both in vitro antagonism of F. verticillioides and in planta reductions of disease and mycotoxin accumulation, the former attributed to production of lipopeptide antibiotics. Although both RRC101 surfactins and fengycins induce increase mycotoxin accumulation in plate assays, only fengycins are antagonistic and induce hyphal distortion, pigment accumulation indicative of a stress response, and violent lysis. Preliminary analysis of RNA sequencing data has identified common functional groups in transcripts enriched in F. verticillioides under fengycin antagonism, particularly structural proteins and hydrolytic enzymes. Genes responsible for secondary metabolism, specifically antibiotic production, are also upregulated under lipopeptide challenge. These data suggest that differential lipopeptide responses previously observed in F. verticillioides reflect an underlying cross-kingdom “conversation” of secondary metabolites between maize endophytes.