A circadian oscillator in the fungus Botrytis cinerea regulates virulence when infecting Arabidopsis thaliana Article Swipe
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· 2015
· Open Access
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· DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1508432112
· OA: W1523902116
Significance Circadian clocks are molecular machineries that allow organisms to anticipate daily cyclic challenges and to temporally modulate different processes. Thus, plant defense mechanisms against pathogens have been reported to vary daily in Arabidopsis thaliana . Although the plant–pathogen interaction is a two-sided story, nothing is known regarding circadian regulation of pathogenic traits. Herein we characterize a functional circadian clock in the necrotrophic fungal plant pathogen Botrytis cinerea , postulating additional roles for BcFRQ1, the Botrytis ortholog of the core clock component FREQUENCY of Neurospora crassa . By using different plant and Botrytis clock-null mutants, we demonstrate that the interaction between this pathogen and its host varies with the time of day, being the B. cinerea circadian clock key in regulating this outcome.
