Research Overview
Chestnut Blight Fungus
Chestnut blight fungus , Cryphonectria parasitica, is the causal agent of chestnut blight, an introduced exotic disease that has decimated the American Chestnut trees that were once an abundant feature of the eastern U.S. deciduous forest.
Hypoviruses
A family of naturally occurring viruses, known as hypoviruses, attenuate the virulence (reduce or eliminate the ability to cause disease) of the chestnut blight fungus.
In addition to the potential for using these viruses as safe means of biological pest control, the development of infectious hypovirus cDNA clones also provides a powerful experimental system for the study of virus-host interactions and the means for engineering hypoviruses to enhance biological control potential.
|
Research Description
Research Areas: Pathobiology, Genome Sciences
Research Specialties: Engineering viruses to understand and control fungal pathogenesis
Our laboratory has been studying a family of mycoviruses, the hypoviruses that attenuate virulence of the chestnut blight fungus, Cryphonectria parasitica. The hypovirus/C. parasitica system is one of the very few eucaryotic systems for which both a virus and its host can be genetically manipulated with ease. A very robust DNA transformation system is available for C. parasitica allowing disruption, silencing or over-expression of fungal genes. We have constructed infectious cDNA clones of two hypovirus RNA genomes, CHV1-EP713 and CHV1, Euro7, providing the only viral reverse genetics system for the entire Kingdom Fungi. This development has allowed the construction of "engineered" hypoviruses with enhanced biocontrol potential and the extension of virus host range to include several other pathogenic fungi.
Hypovirus CHV1-EP713 causes very severe phenotypic changes in the infected fungal host while hypovirus CHV1-Euro7 causes mild symptoms. Although these two viruses cause...
Complete Information...
|
Representative Publications
Segers, G. C., Zhang, X., Deng, F., Sun, Q., and Nuss, D. L. Evidence that RNA silencing functions as an antiviral defense mechanism in fungi. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 104:12902-12906, 2007.
Deng, F., Allen, T. D., Hillman, B. I. and Nuss, D. L. Comparative analysis of alterations in host phenotype and transcript accumulation following hypovirus and mycoreovirus infections in the chestnut blight fungus. Eukaryotic Cell 6:1286-1298, 2007.
Deng, F., Allen, T. D. and Nuss, D. L. Ste12 transcription factor homologue CpSTE12 is down-regulated by hypovirus infection and required for virulence and female fertility of the chestnut blight fungus Cryphonectria parasitica. Eukaryotic Cell 6:235-244, 2007.
Complete Listing...
|
