FUNCTIONAL CHARACTERIZATION OF MYCOVIRUSES PRESENT IN PHYTOPATHOGENIC FUNGI AND THEIR ROLE IN MULTITROPHIC INTERACTIONS

• Grant number: 24/10439-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date until: October 01, 2024
• End date until: January 31, 2028
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Genetics - Molecular Genetics and Genetics of Microorganisms
• Principal Investigator: Márcio de Castro Silva Filho
• Grantee: Israel Felipe Gonçalves Soares
• Host Institution: Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALQ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The phytopathogenic fungi Fusarium verticillioides and Colletotrichum falcatum associated with the sugarcane borer Diatraea saccharalis are responsible for the occurrence of the red rot complex in sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum). Recently, our group demonstrated the presence of double-stranded RNA mycoviruses that can cause significant effects on their host. Thus, this study aims to evaluate the phenotypic and molecular changes in the phytopathogenic fungi F. verticillioides ESALQ and C. falcatum MMBF 01/18 infected by the dsRNA genome mycoviruses Fusarium verticillioides partitivirus 1 and Colletotrichum falcatum victorivirus 1, respectively. For this purpose, isogenic strains of fungi infected and uninfected by mycoviruses will be cultured in Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) medium, and experiments will be conducted to evaluate their morphophysiological characteristics: colony morphology (coloration), hyphal morphology, sporulation capacity, mycelial growth rate, conidial length, conidial width, and the effects of viral infection on the response to abiotic stresses (temperature, salinity, and carbon source). Furthermore, to identify molecular changes resulting from fungal infection, total RNA extraction will be performed using the RNeasy® Plant Mini Kit (Qiagen), and the transcriptome will be evaluated through Illumina sequencing. The clean and qualified data from each sample will be mapped to the annotated genetic transcripts of the reference genome using Bowtie 2 software. For a comprehensive analysis of the transcriptome to elucidate the molecular basis of this interaction, normalized read counts will be performed using the DESeq library implemented in R software.