DNA Methylation Is Responsive to the Environment and Regulates the Expression of Biosynthetic Gene Clusters, Metabolite Production, and Virulence in Fusarium graminearum

Christopher Bonner; Amanda Sproule; Owen Rowland; David Overy; Rajagopal Subramaniam

doi:10.3389/ffunb.2020.614633

DNA Methylation Is Responsive to the Environment and Regulates the Expression of Biosynthetic Gene Clusters, Metabolite Production, and Virulence in Fusarium graminearum

Front Fungal Biol. 2021 Jan 15:1:614633. doi: 10.3389/ffunb.2020.614633. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Christopher Bonner^{1

2}, Amanda Sproule², Owen Rowland¹, David Overy^{1

2}, Rajagopal Subramaniam^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biology, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
² Ottawa Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Ottawa, ON, Canada.

Abstract

Histone modifications play a significant role in the regulation of biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) in the phytopathogen Fusarium graminearum, by contrast, epigenetic regulation by DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs) is less documented. In this study, we characterized two DNMTs (FgDIM-2 and FgRID) in F. graminearum, with homologies to "Deficient in methylation" (DIM-2) and "Repeat-induced point (RIP) deficient" (RID) from Neurospora. The loss of DNMTs resulted in not only a decrease in average methylation density in the nutrient-poor, compared to nutrient-rich conditions, but also differences in the genes expressed between the WT and the DNMT mutant strains, implicating the external environment as an important trigger in altering DNA methylation patterns. Consequently, we observed significant changes in the regulation of multiple BGCs and alterations in the pathogenicity of the fungus.

Keywords: DNA methyltransferase; Fusarium graminearum; Metaboilte profiling; RNA-Seq; bisulfite sequencing.