Epigenetic regulation of nuclear processes in fungal plant pathogens

H Martin Kramer; David E Cook; Michael F Seidl; Bart P H J Thomma

doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1011525

Epigenetic regulation of nuclear processes in fungal plant pathogens

PLoS Pathog. 2023 Aug 3;19(8):e1011525. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1011525. eCollection 2023 Aug.

Authors

H Martin Kramer¹, David E Cook^{1

2}, Michael F Seidl^{1

3}, Bart P H J Thomma^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Phytopathology, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands.
² Department of Plant Pathology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, United States of America.
³ Theoretical Biology & Bioinformatics, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
⁴ University of Cologne, Institute for Plant Sciences, Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences (CEPLAS), Cologne, Germany.

Abstract

Through the association of protein complexes to DNA, the eukaryotic nuclear genome is broadly organized into open euchromatin that is accessible for enzymes acting on DNA and condensed heterochromatin that is inaccessible. Chemical and physical alterations to chromatin may impact its organization and functionality and are therefore important regulators of nuclear processes. Studies in various fungal plant pathogens have uncovered an association between chromatin organization and expression of in planta-induced genes that are important for pathogenicity. This review discusses chromatin-based regulation mechanisms as determined in the fungal plant pathogen Verticillium dahliae and relates the importance of epigenetic transcriptional regulation and other nuclear processes more broadly in fungal plant pathogens.

Copyright: © 2023 Kramer et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Publication types

Review
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Ascomycota* / genetics
Cell Nucleus / genetics
Cell Nucleus / metabolism
Epigenesis, Genetic
Euchromatin / metabolism
Fungal Proteins / metabolism
Plant Diseases / genetics
Plant Diseases / microbiology
Verticillium* / genetics

Substances

Euchromatin
Fungal Proteins

Grants and funding

This work was supported by a PhD grant of the Research Council Earth and Life Sciences (project 831.15.002) to HMK. DEC acknowledges funding from the USDA NIFA, awards 2021-67013-35724 and 2018-67013-28492, and NSF, awards 2011500 and 1936800. BPHJT acknowledges funding by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in the framework of an Alexander von Humboldt Professorship endowed by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research is furthermore supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany´s Excellence Strategy – EXC 2048/1 – Project ID: 390686111. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.