Monitorització de ruscs d'abelles

L’apicultura és una de les especialitzacions de la ramaderia que a l’actualitat encara es manté sense gairebé cap tipus de tecnologia associada. Els ruscs continuen funcionant de forma similar a fa milers d’anys, on les abelles fan la feina i l’apicultor recol·lecta els productes que en generen. El present treball consisteix en dissenyar i construir un prototip que permeti monitoritzar diferents paràmetres d’un rusc d’abelles: la temperatura interna i externa, la humitat també interna i externa així com comptabilitzar el nombre d’abelles que entren i surten del rusc. Totes les dades que es van adquirint queden emmagatzemades en una memòria SD. Per aconseguir-ho s’ha dissenyat i creat un prototip, de baix cost i de fàcil implementació e instal·lació. En aquest prototip en qualsevol moment l’usuari pot observar els diferents paràmetres monitoritzats mitjançant una pantalla LCD. Per a comprovar el correcte funcionament del prototipus, s’han realitzat proves de camp, incorporant-lo a un rusc d’abelles reals i prenent mesures durant un temps limitat. El treball s’ha realitzat seguint una planificació prèviament definida, començant per un estudi a fons del mercat, realitzant diverses consultes a experts en l’apicultura, el disseny i muntatge del prototip, la seva programació i finalment l’anàlisi dels resultats obtinguts a les proves de camp. Els resultats mostren la viabilitat del prototipus creat i dona peu a la seva utilització per part d’apicultors interessats en conèixer quelcom més de l’estat del rusc o per a la utilització a l’estudi del comportament de les abelles

ZED1-related kinase 13 is required for resistance against Pseudoidium neolycopersici in Arabidopsis accession Bla-6

To explore specific components of resistance against the tomato-adapted powdery mildew pathogen Pseudoidium neolycopersici (On) in the model plant Arabidopsis, we performed a disease assay in 123 accessions. When testing the resistance in the F1 from crossings between resistant accessions with susceptible Col-0 or Sha, only the progeny of the cross between accession Bla-6 and Col-0 displayed a completely resistant phenotype. The resistance in Bla-6 is known to be specific for Pseudoidium neolycopersici. QTL analysis and fine-mapping through several rounds of recombinant screenings allowed us to locate a major resistance QTL in an interval on chromosome 1, containing two candidate genes and an intergenic insertion. Via CRISPR/Cas9 targeted mutagenesis, we could show that knocking out the ZED-1 RELATED KINASE 13 (ZRK13) gene compromised the On resistance in Bla-6. Several polymorphisms are observed in the ZRK13 allelic variant of Bla-6 when compared to the Col-0 protein

Susceptibility pays off: insights into the mlo-based powdery mildew resistance

Powdery mildew (PM) is a worldwide-occurring plant disease caused by ascomycete fungi of the order Erysiphales. A conspicuous number of plant species are susceptible to this disease, the occurrence of which is increasing due to the influence of climate change. Symptoms are easy to recognize by the powdery whitish fungal structures growing on the surface of plant organs. Severe infections cause significant losses in crops, such as tomato, cucumber and wheat, as well as in ornamentals, like rose and petunia. Accordingly, breeding crops with a robust immunity to this disease is of great economic importance. A significant step in this direction was the discovery of mlo (mildew locus o) mutant alleles of the barley HvMlo gene, which are responsible for the non-race specific resistance to the barley PM pathogen, Blumeria graminis f.sp. hordei (Bgh). During the years, this recessively inherited resistance was observed to be durable, contrary to the short life-span of resistances conferred by dominant resistance (R-) genes used in barley breeding programs. Studies on the histological mechanisms of the mlo-based resistance showed that the PM pathogen was stopped during penetration of the cell wall by the formation of a papilla. This structure prevents the formation of the feeding structure of the pathogen, called a haustorium. After sequencing many plant genomes, we are discovering that MLO genes are not only typical of this cereal, but are ubiquitously present in higher plant species in multiple copies per species, forming a gene family. The impairment of some members of a number of ever increasing plant species lead to broad-spectrum resistance towards their adapted PM pathogens. For example, in tomato the ol-2 gene, naturally harbored by the cherry tomato Solanum lycopersicum var. cerasiforme, represents the loss-of-function allele of the SlMLO1 gene, conferring resistance to the PM pathogen Oidium neolycopersici (On). Consequently, the use of mlo mutants represents a suitable alternative to the classical use of R-genes in breeding programs. In Chapter 2, we describe the in silico identification of the complete tomato SlMLO gene family using the available information in the SOL genomic network database. In total, 16 tomato SlMLO members were cloned from leaf, root, flower and fruit of the susceptible tomato cv. Moneymaker to confirm the sequences retrieved from the database and to verify their actual expression in these tissues. We observed the presence of various types of splicing variants, although their possible functional meaning has not been investigated. Motif analyses of each of the translated protein sequences and phylogenetic studies highlighted, on one hand, amino acid stretches that characterize the whole MLO family, and, on the other hand, stretches conserved in MLO homologs that are phylogenetically related. Following a gene expression study upon On inoculation, we identified members of the SlMLO family that are upregulated few hours after pathogen challenge. Except SlMLO1, none of the three newly identified homologs in clade V, thus phylogenetically close to SlMLO1, are induced. Interestingly, two homologs, each found in different clades, are upregulated similarly to SlMLO1. Using an RNAi approach, we silenced the additional clade V-SlMLO homologs, namely SlMLO3, SlMLO5 and SlMLO8, to investigate their possible role in PM resistance. We observed that none of these homologs if individually silenced, leads to PM resistance. However, if SlMLO5 and SlMLO8 are silenced together with SlMLO1, a significantly higher level of resistance is achieved compared to plants carrying the ol-2 allele. The role of SlMLO3 could not be verified. We, therefore, concluded that there are three SlMLO genes in tomato unevenly contributing to the PM disease, of which SlMLO1 has a major role. Chapter 3 focuses on the components of the tomato mlo-based resistance. In Arabidopsis, it is known that four members of the SNARE protein family, involved in membrane fusion, are involved in mlo-based resistance. In this chapter, we focused on the identification of tomato homologs of the Arabidopsis syntaxin PEN1 (AtSYP121). Among the group of syntaxins identified in tomato, two were closely related to each other and also to AtPEN1, denominated SlPEN1a and SlPEN1b. Another Arabidopsis syntaxin that shows a high level of homology with PEN1, called SYP122, was also found to group together with the newly identified SlPEN1 genes. However, the role of SYP122 in plant immunity was not shown in literature. After obtaining individual silencing RNAi constructs, we transformed the resistant ol-2 line, and we challenged the obtained transformants with the adapted PM On, and the non-adapted Bgh. Interestingly, we observed a significant On growth and an enhanced Bgh cell entry only in SlPEN1a silenced plants but not in SlPEN1b silenced ones. We performed a protein alignment of tomato and Arabidopsis functional and non-functional PEN sequences. The presence of three differently conserved non-synonymous amino-acid substitutions is hypothesised to be responsible for the specialization in plant immune function. In Chapter 4 and Chapter 5, we build up a body of evidence pointing to the fact that the function of the MLO susceptibility genes is highly conserved between monocot and dicot plant species. In Chapter 4 we started by identifying and functionally characterizing two new MLO genes of Solanaceous crops affected by the PM disease, tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) and eggplant (Solanum melongena). We named them NtMLO1 and SmMLO1 in the respective species, as they are the closest homologs to tomato SlMLO1. By overexpressing these genes in the resistant ol-2 line, we obtained transgenic plants that were susceptible to the PM pathogen On. This finding demonstrates that both heterologous MLO proteins can rescue the function of the impaired ol-2 allele in tomato. In addition, we found in tobacco NtMLO1 an amino acid (Q198) of critical importance for the susceptibility function of this protein. In Chapter 5, we used the same approach adopted in Chapter 4 to show that other MLO proteins of more distant dicot species, like pea PsMLO1, can rescue the loss-of-function of the tomato ol-2 allele. And finally, we stretched this concept also to monocot MLO proteins, using barley HvMlo. While performing these experiments, we could verify that the function of the monocot and dicot susceptibility MLO proteins does not rely on the presence of class-specific conservation. The latter can be the reason for the phylogenetic divergence, placing monocot MLO proteins in clade IV and dicot MLO proteins in clade V of the phylogenetic MLO tree. However, functional conservation might depend on crucial shared amino acids of clade IV and V MLO proteins. Therefore, we also conducted a codon-based evolutionary analysis that resulted in the identification of 130 codons under negative selection, thus strongly maintained during evolution. In Chapter 6 we introduce the PM disease in cucumber caused by Podosphaera xanthii (Px). We cloned the candidate susceptibility gene for PM in cucumber, CsaMLO8, from susceptible and resistant genotypes. The latter was described as an advanced cucumber breeding line characterized by hypocotyl resistance. In this line, we found the presence of aberrant splicing variants of the CsaMLO8 mRNA due to the insertion in its corresponding genomic region of a Class LTR retrotransposon. Heterologous expression of the wild-type cucumber allele in the tomato ol-2 line restored its PM susceptibility, while the heterologous expression of the aberrant protein variant failed to do so. This finding confirms that the resistance of the advanced cucumber breeding line is due to the disruption of the coding region of this gene. We also showed that the expression of CsaMLO8 in the susceptible genotype is induced by Px in hypocotyl tissue, but not in cotyledon or leaf. Finally, by examination of the resequencing data of a collection of 115 cucumber accessions, we found the presence of the TE-containing allele in 31 of them among which a wild cucumber accession that might have been used in breeding programs to obtain resistance to the PM disease in cucumber. In Chapter 7 a novel loss-of-function allele of the SlMLO1 gene is described, designated m200. This allele was found in a resistant plant (M200) from a mutagenized tomato Micro-Tom (MT) population obtained with the chemical mutagen ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS). The m200 mutation corresponds to a nucleotide transversion (T à A) which results in a premature stop codon. The length of the predicted SlMLO1 protein in the M200 plant is only 21 amino acids, thus much shorter than the predicted protein of the previously described ol-2 allele, consisting of 200 amino acids. Thanks to the development of a High-Resolution Melting (HRM) marker designed to detect the m200 mutation, we observed that this allele confers recessively inherited resistance in backcross populations of the resistant M200 plant with MT and Moneymaker. Histological study showed that the resistance of the m200 mutant is associated with papilla formation. Finally, we compared the rate of On penetration in epidermal cells of m200 plants with the one of plants carrying the ol-2 allele and the transgenic plants in which multiple SlMLO homologs were silenced, generated in Chapter 2. Ultimately, in Chapter 8 the results of the previous chapters are discussed in the context of 1) practical applications in breeding programs aimed at introducing the mlo-based resistance in new crops, 2) possible research aimed at unraveling the function of the MLO protein and 3) the role of other SNARE proteins

Functional characterization of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) Clade V MLO genes

Background: Powdery mildew (PM) causing fungi are well-known pathogens, infecting over 10.000 plant species, including the economically important crop cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.). Loss-of-function mutations in clade V MLO genes have previously been shown to lead to recessively inherited broad-spectrum resistance to PM in several species. In cucumber, one clade V MLO homolog (CsaMLO8) was previously identified as being a susceptibility factor to PM. Two other closely related homologs (CsaMLO1 and CsaMLO11) were found, but their function was not yet unravelled. Methods: CsaMLO1 and CsaMLO11 were cloned from cucumber and overexpressed in a tomato mlo mutant. The transcript abundances of all three CsaMLO genes in different cucumber tissues were quantified using qRT-PCR and RNA-seq, with and without inoculation with the cucumber PM fungus Podosphaera xanthii. Allelic variation of CsaMLO1 and CsaMLO11 was screened in silico in sequenced cucumber germplasm. Results: Heterologous overexpression of all three CsaMLO genes in the tomato mlo mutant restored susceptibility to PM caused by Oidium neolycopersici, albeit to a different extent: whereas overexpression of CsaMLO1 or CsaMLO8 completely restored susceptibility, overexpression of CsaMLO11 was only partially able to restore PM susceptibility. Furthermore, it was observed by qRT-PCR and RNA-seq that CsaMLO8 was significantly higher expressed in non-inoculated cucumber compared to the other two MLO genes. However, inoculation with P. xanthii led to upregulation of CsaMLO1, but not to upregulation of CsaMLO8 or CsaMLO11. Conclusions: Both CsaMLO1 and CsaMLO11 are functional susceptibility genes, although we conclude that based on the transcript abundance CsaMLO8 is probably the major clade V MLO gene in cucumber regarding providing susceptibility to PM. Potential loss-of-function mutations in CsaMLO1 and CsaMLO11 have not been identified. The generation and analysis of such mutants are interesting subjects for further investigation.</p

Functional characterization of the powdery mildew susceptibility gene SmMLO1 in eggplant (Solanum melongena L.)

Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) is one of the most important vegetables among the Solanaceae and can be a host to fungal species causing powdery mildew (PM) disease. Specific homologs of the plant Mildew Locus O (MLO) gene family are PM susceptibility factors, as their loss of function results in a recessive form of resistance known as mlo resistance. In a previous work, we isolated the eggplant MLO homolog SmMLO1. SmMLO1 is closely related to MLO susceptibility genes characterized in other plant species. However, it displays a peculiar non-synonymous substitution that leads to a T → M amino acid change at protein position 422, in correspondence of the MLO calmodulin-binding domain. In this study, we performed the functional characterization of SmMLO1. Transgenic overexpression of SmMLO1 in a tomato mlo mutant compromised resistance to the tomato PM pathogen Oidium neolycopersici, thus indicating that SmMLO1 is a PM susceptibility factor in eggplant. PM susceptibility was also restored by the transgenic expression of a synthetic gene, named s-SmMLO1, encoding a protein identical to SmMLO1, except for the presence of T at position 422. This indicates that the T → M polymorphism does not affect the protein role as PM susceptibility factor. Overall, the results of this work are of interest for the functional characterization of MLO proteins and the introduction of PM resistance in eggplant using reverse genetics

Genome-Wide Study of the Tomato SlMLO Gene Family and Its Functional Characterization in Response to the Powdery Mildew Fungus Oidium neolycopersici

The MLO (Mildew Locus O) gene family encodes plant-specific proteins containing seven transmembrane domains and likely acting in signal transduction in a calcium and calmodulin dependent manner. Some members of the MLO family are susceptibility factors towards fungi causing the powdery mildew disease. In tomato, for example, the loss-of-function of the MLO gene SlMLO1 leads to a particular form of powdery mildew resistance, called ol-2, which arrests almost completely fungal penetration. This type of penetration resistance is characterized by the apposition of papillae at the sites of plant-pathogen interaction. Other MLO homologs in Arabidopsis regulate root response to mechanical stimuli (AtMLO4 and AtMLO11) and pollen tube reception by the female gametophyte (AtMLO7). However, the role of most MLO genes remains unknown. In this work, we provide a genome-wide study of the tomato SlMLO gene family. Besides SlMLO1, other fifteen SlMLO homologs were identified and characterized with respect to their structure, genomic organization, phylogenetic relationship, and expression profile. In addition, by analysis of transgenic plants, we demonstrated that simultaneous silencing of SlMLO1 and two of its closely related homologs, SlMLO5 and SlMLO8, confer higher level of resistance than the one associated with the ol-2 mutation.The outcome of this study provides evidence for functional redundancy among tomato homolog genes involved in powdery mildew susceptibility. Moreover, we developed a series of transgenic lines silenced for individual SlMLO homologs, which lay the foundation for further investigations aimed at assigning new biological functions to the MLO gene family

Solanum lycopersicum callose synthase 12 gene, partial cds

Abstract Background The development of CRISPR/Cas9 technology has facilitated targeted mutagenesis in an efficient and precise way. Previously, RNAi silencing of the susceptibility (S) gene PowderyMildewResistance 4 (PMR4) in tomato has been shown to enhance resistance against the powdery mildew pathogen Oidium neolycopersici (On). Results To study whether full knock-out of the tomato PMR4 gene would result in a higher level of resistance than in the RNAi-silenced transgenic plants we generated tomato PMR4 CRISPR mutants. We used a CRISPR/Cas9 construct containing four single-guide RNAs (sgRNAs) targeting the tomato PMR4 gene to increase the possibility of large deletions in the mutants. After PCR-based selection and sequencing of transformants, we identified five different mutation events, including deletions from 4 to 900-bp, a 1-bp insertion and a 892-bp inversion. These mutants all showed reduced susceptibility to On based on visual scoring of disease symptoms and quantification of relative fungal biomass. Histological observations revealed a significantly higher occurrence of hypersensitive response-like cell death at sites of fungal infection in the pmr4 mutants compared to wild-type plants. Both haustorial formation and hyphal growth were diminished but not completely inhibited in the mutants. Conclusion CRISPR/Cas-9 targeted mutagenesis of the tomato PMR4 gene resulted in mutants with reduced but not complete loss of susceptibility to the PM pathogen On. Our study demonstrates the efficiency and versatility of the CRISPR/Cas9 system as a powerful tool to study and characterize S-genes by generating different types of mutations

CRISPR/Cas9-targeted mutagenesis of the tomato susceptibility gene PMR4 for resistance against powdery mildew

Background: The development of CRISPR/Cas9 technology has facilitated targeted mutagenesis in an efficient and precise way. Previously, RNAi silencing of the susceptibility (S) gene P owdery M ildew R esistance 4 (PMR4) in tomato has been shown to enhance resistance against the powdery mildew pathogen Oidium neolycopersici (On). Results: To study whether full knock-out of the tomato PMR4 gene would result in a higher level of resistance than in the RNAi-silenced transgenic plants we generated tomato PMR4 CRISPR mutants. We used a CRISPR/Cas9 construct containing four single-guide RNAs (sgRNAs) targeting the tomato PMR4 gene to increase the possibility of large deletions in the mutants. After PCR-based selection and sequencing of transformants, we identified five different mutation events, including deletions from 4 to 900-bp, a 1-bp insertion and a 892-bp inversion. These mutants all showed reduced susceptibility to On based on visual scoring of disease symptoms and quantification of relative fungal biomass. Histological observations revealed a significantly higher occurrence of hypersensitive response-like cell death at sites of fungal infection in the pmr4 mutants compared to wild-type plants. Both haustorial formation and hyphal growth were diminished but not completely inhibited in the mutants. Conclusion: CRISPR/Cas-9 targeted mutagenesis of the tomato PMR4 gene resulted in mutants with reduced but not complete loss of susceptibility to the PM pathogen On. Our study demonstrates the efficiency and versatility of the CRISPR/Cas9 system as a powerful tool to study and characterize S-genes by generating different types of mutations.</p

Solanum lycopersicum callose synthase 12 gene, partial cds

Abstract Background The development of CRISPR/Cas9 technology has facilitated targeted mutagenesis in an efficient and precise way. Previously, RNAi silencing of the susceptibility (S) gene PowderyMildewResistance 4 (PMR4) in tomato has been shown to enhance resistance against the powdery mildew pathogen Oidium neolycopersici (On). Results To study whether full knock-out of the tomato PMR4 gene would result in a higher level of resistance than in the RNAi-silenced transgenic plants we generated tomato PMR4 CRISPR mutants. We used a CRISPR/Cas9 construct containing four single-guide RNAs (sgRNAs) targeting the tomato PMR4 gene to increase the possibility of large deletions in the mutants. After PCR-based selection and sequencing of transformants, we identified five different mutation events, including deletions from 4 to 900-bp, a 1-bp insertion and a 892-bp inversion. These mutants all showed reduced susceptibility to On based on visual scoring of disease symptoms and quantification of relative fungal biomass. Histological observations revealed a significantly higher occurrence of hypersensitive response-like cell death at sites of fungal infection in the pmr4 mutants compared to wild-type plants. Both haustorial formation and hyphal growth were diminished but not completely inhibited in the mutants. Conclusion CRISPR/Cas-9 targeted mutagenesis of the tomato PMR4 gene resulted in mutants with reduced but not complete loss of susceptibility to the PM pathogen On. Our study demonstrates the efficiency and versatility of the CRISPR/Cas9 system as a powerful tool to study and characterize S-genes by generating different types of mutations