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Deciphering the transposable elements in Puccinia psidii Winter, causal agent of rust on Eucalyptus spp.

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Author(s):
Sarina Tsui
Total Authors: 1
Document type: Master's Dissertation
Press: Piracicaba.
Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALA/BC)
Defense date:
Examining board members:
Maria Carolina Quecine Verdi; Welington Luiz de Araujo; Luis Eduardo Aranha Camargo
Advisor: Maria Carolina Quecine Verdi
Abstract

The culture of eucalyptus has great importance worldwide in forestry sector. In Brazil, 70% of cultivated forest area is intended for Eucalyptus. However, the eucalyptus potential productive has been affected by rust disease, caused by the fungus Puccinia psidii Winter. Despite its importance to brazilian and world forest sector, the knowledge of biology, genetic and pathogenic mechanisms of this pathogen is scarce. Transposable elements (TEs) are mobile DNA fragments that influence the organization and development of the host genome. These elements have the ability to move within host genome, and their insertion can cause a wide spectrum of mutations in their hosts. This study aims to decipher the TEs in P. psidii genome by combining in silico and molecular tools. P. psidii MF-1 TEs classification was performed automatically, through RepeatMasker software, being observed a predominance of Class I - LTR Retrotransposons in P. psidii MF-1 genome. This result is consistent with the TEs composition described in phytopathogenic fungi. Some in silico analysis, as integrity and manual annotation of conserved protein sequences from TEs were carried out with P. psidii MF-1 contigs classified as transposable elements. The presence of conserved sequences belonging to pol region in LTR Retrotransposons was observed. Furthermore, these analysis allowed the inference of hybrid TEs in P. psidii MF-1. At the same time, a comparative analysis of TEs present in other Puccinia genomes and P. psidii MF-1 was also performed. The P. graminis, P. striiformis and P. triticina genomes have higher frequency of Class II - DNA Transposons unlike the results found for P. psidii. Interestingly, the number of unknown elements was similarly high for all genomes. This type of analysis is very importante because it shows a great number of potential new TEs families to be discovered. They may be potentially related to the virulence gene silencing of these pathogens. Using TEs for study the fungal genetic diversity is quite common. The IRAP technique was used to access the diversity among P. psidii populations originated from three Eucalyptus spp. hybrids, guava, syzigium and jabuticaba. However, this technique was not efficient to detect existing polymorphisms between these populations. TEs annotation was labored due to the existence of overlapping elements, which may represent hybrids TEs. PCR tool was used to confirm some sequences annotated as hybrids and more studies are needed to confirm this hyphotesis. The results presented in this study are novel and is a crucial step in understanding the genetic of P. psidii pathogen for further improvements of rust control mechanisms. (AU)

FAPESP's process: 14/04803-3 - Characterization, distribution and study of the activity of transposable elements in Puccinia psidii, causal agent of rust on Eucalyptus spp.
Grantee:Sarina Tsui
Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master