Abstract
Penicillium digitatum is the major postharvest pathogen of citrus fruit under Mediterranean climate conditions. Previous results have shown that proteases is the largest enzyme family induced by P. digitatum during fruit infection. In the present work, we addressed the study of the role of P. digitatum’s proteases in virulence following two complementary approaches. In the first approach, we undertook the functional characterization of the P. digitatum prtT gene, which codes for a putative transcription factor previously shown to regulate extracellular proteases in other filamentous fungi. Deletion of prtT caused a significant loss in secreted protease activity during in vitro growth assays. However, there was no effect on virulence. Gene expression of the two major secreted acid proteases was barely affected in the ΔprtT deletant during infection of citrus fruit. Hence, no conclusion could be drawn on the role of these secreted acidic proteases on the virulence of P. digitatum. In the second approach, we studied the effect of different protease inhibitors and chelators on virulence. Co-inoculation of citrus fruit with P. digitatum conidia and a cocktail of protease inhibitors resulted in almost a complete absence of disease development. Analysis of individual inhibitors revealed that the metalloprotease inhibitor, 1,10-phenanthroline, was responsible for the observed effect. The application of metal ions reverted the protective effect caused by the metallopeptidase inhibitor. These results may set the basis for the development of new alternative treatments to combat this important postharvest pathogen.
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Claims 6
Claim · model-written summary
Deletion of prtT significantly reduced secreted protease activity in vitro.
- Treatment
- Deletion of prtTe0
- Interactor
- Penicillium digitatum
Penicillium digitatumt0pathogen - Gene
- prtTe0
- Outcome
- secreted protease activitye0
- Direction
- losse0
CitrusNot reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Deletion of prtT caused a significant loss in secreted protease activity during in vitro growth assays.”
e1“during infection of citrus fruit”
t0“Penicillium digitatum Proteases on Virulence”
Claim · model-written summary
Deletion of prtT had no effect on virulence.
- Treatment
- Deletion of prtTe0
- Interactor
- Penicillium digitatumPenicillium digitatumt0pathogen
- Outcome
- virulencee0
- Direction
- no effecte0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Deletion of prtT caused a significant loss in secreted protease activity during in vitro growth assays. However, there was no effect on virulence.”
e1“during infection of citrus fruit”
t0“Penicillium digitatum Proteases on Virulence”
Claim · model-written summary
Expression of two major secreted acid proteases was barely affected in the prtT deletant during citrus infection.
- Treatment
- ΔprtT deletante0
- Interactor
- Penicillium digitatumPenicillium digitatumt0pathogen
- Outcome
- Gene expression of the two major secreted acid proteasese0
- Direction
- barely affectede0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Gene expression of the two major secreted acid proteases was barely affected in the ΔprtT deletant during infection of citrus fruit.”
t0“Penicillium digitatum Proteases on Virulence”
Claim · model-written summary
A cocktail of protease inhibitors nearly prevented disease in inoculated citrus fruit.
- Treatment
- a cocktail of protease inhibitorse0
- Interactor
- P. digitatumPenicillium digitatume0pathogen
- Outcome
- disease developmente0
- Direction
- almost a complete absencee0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Co-inoculation of citrus fruit with P. digitatum conidia and a cocktail of protease inhibitors resulted in almost a complete absence of disease development.”
Claim · model-written summary
The metalloprotease inhibitor 1,10-phenanthroline accounted for the protection.
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Analysis of individual inhibitors revealed that the metalloprotease inhibitor, 1,10-phenanthroline, was responsible for the observed effect.”
t0“Co-inoculation of citrus fruit”
Claim · model-written summary
Metal ion application reversed protection from the metallopeptidase inhibitor.
- Treatment
- application of metal ionse0
- Outcome
- protective effecte0
- Direction
- revertede0
- Comparator
- metallopeptidase inhibitore0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“The application of metal ions reverted the protective effect caused by the metallopeptidase inhibitor.”
t0“Co-inoculation of citrus fruit”
The same questions in other papers
loss of function · Penicillium digitatum · CitrusPositive and negative results
1 in the opposite direction
- positive
Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.