Abstract
Current knowledge on the mechanism of strigolactones (SLs) as signaling molecules during specific interactions in the rhizosphere is mainly related to the control of germination of parasitic weed seeds and hyphal branching of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Thus, the role of plant secreted SLs in regulating the growth and development of root-colonizing fungi still remains controversial. Fusarium oxysporum can sense and respond to extracellular signals through oriented germ tube emergence and redirectioning of hyphal growth toward gradients of nutrients, sex pheromones, or plant root exudates. However, chemoattractant activity of SLs against microorganisms living in the soil has not been tested so far. Here we propose a quantitative chemotropic assay to understand if and how soil fungi could sense gradients of SLs and SLs-like sources. In the example case of F. oxysporum, hyphae of fungal representative mutants preferentially grow toward the synthetic SL analog GR24; and this chemotropic response requires conserved elements of the fungal invasive growth mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade.
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Acknowledgments
The work was supported by grant BIO2016-78923-R from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) to A.D.P. This study was inspired by the COST Action FA1206 STREAM. The authors are grateful to Drs. Maurizio Vurro and Angela Boari, ISPA-CNR, Bari, Italy; and Drs. Francesca Cardinale and Ivan Visentin, StrigoLab, Torino, Italy (https://strigolab.eu/) for the kind gift of the SL standards.
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Pineda-Martos, R., Di Pietro, A., Turrà, D. (2021). Chemotropic Assay for Testing Fungal Response to Strigolactones and Strigolactone-Like Compounds. In: Prandi, C., Cardinale, F. (eds) Strigolactones. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2309. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-1429-7_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-1429-7_9
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