Archivio Journal of Plant Pathology

Abstract:

Cryparin is a cell wall hydrophobin abundantly expressed in Cryphonectria parasitica, the ascomycete fungus causing chestnut blight. In this study we compare the cryparin-minus phenotype of a previously characterized knockout strain to that of silenced strains obtained by the transformation of the fungus with a strong elicitor of post-transcriptional gene silencing. We show that cryparin expression can be silenced very efficiently and that the knockout phenotype is similar to the phenotypes obtained through gene silencing. Silenced strains were also experimentally infected with Chryphonectria hypovirus 1 (CHV-1) with no obvious effect on cryparin expression. We also tested the possibility that p29, a protease expressed by the CHV-1 genome, might act as a suppressor of gene silencing in plants.