Abstract
Ustilago maydis and Sporisorium reilianum are both dimorphic fungi that cause infection in the host plant, corn (Zea mays). In order for infection to be successful, compatible haploid mating types must form a dikaryon that later leads to the development and dispersal of teliospores. In order to sustain growth, energy is produced via the electron transport chain within the mitochondrion. Host plants often produce harsh reactive oxygen species, resulting in the need to use an alternative respiration pathway such as employing an alternative oxidase. Therefore, this study attempted to investigate the role of the aox gene in pathogenicity for these fungi. This was achieved by disrupting the gene of interest and assessing mating, response to stress, and virulence. Virulence was found to be lower in seedlings infected with U. maydis deletion strains, suggesting aox could play a role in pathogenicity. Mating assays and stress tests did not show any differences in growth. Unfortunately, data could not be collected from S. reilianum infections, whose assessment requires full development of infected plants, but further study will investigate virulence and teliospore germination rates. There was a slight difference in mating, but this could not be quantified and should be compared to mating during infection as a future point of investigation. Additionally, there were no differences in morphology or growth ability of deletion strains when compared to wild type during stress tests.
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Claims 4
Claim · model-written summary
U. maydis aox deletion strains had lower virulence in corn seedlings.
- Treatment
- U. maydis deletion strainse0
- Interactor
- U. maydis
Mycosarcoma maydise0pathogen - Gene
- aoxe0
- Outcome
- Virulencee0
- Direction
- lowere0
Zea maysNot reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Virulence was found to be lower in seedlings infected with U. maydis deletion strains, suggesting aox could play a role in pathogenicity”
e1“host plant, corn (Zea mays)”
Claim · model-written summary
Mating assays and stress tests found no growth differences in the fungal strains.
- Interactor
- Ustilago maydisMycosarcoma maydise2pathogen
- Second interactor
- Sporisorium reilianumSporisorium reilianume2pathogen
- Outcome
- growthe0
- Direction
- did not show any differencese0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Mating assays and stress tests did not show any differences in growth”
e1“host plant, corn (Zea mays)”
e2“Ustilago maydis and Sporisorium reilianum”
Claim · model-written summary
Deletion strains showed a slight, unquantified mating difference.
- Interactor
- Ustilago maydisMycosarcoma maydise2pathogen
- Second interactor
- Sporisorium reilianumSporisorium reilianume2pathogen
- Outcome
- difference in matinge0
- Qualifier
- could not be quantifiede0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“There was a slight difference in mating, but this could not be quantified”
e1“host plant, corn (Zea mays)”
e2“Ustilago maydis and Sporisorium reilianum”
Claim · model-written summary
Deletion strains had no morphology or growth differences from wild type under stress.
- Interactor
- Ustilago maydisMycosarcoma maydise2pathogen
- Second interactor
- Sporisorium reilianumSporisorium reilianume2pathogen
- Outcome
- morphology or growth ability of deletion strainse0
- Direction
- no differencese0
- Comparator
- wild typee0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“there were no differences in morphology or growth ability of deletion strains when compared to wild type during stress tests”
e1“host plant, corn (Zea mays)”
e2“Ustilago maydis and Sporisorium reilianum”
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See all 33 papers →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.