LIGHT as important environmental cue for pathogens and their hosts – from the perspective of the gray mold fungus Botrytis cinerea
J. SCHUMACHER (1) (1) IBBP, WWU Münster, Germany

Plants use light as the main source of energy; however, they also monitor the light environment through a set of photoreceptors (PRs) to regulate processes such as germination, flowering, entrainment of the circadian clock and morphogenesis. In addition, light as an abiotic factor affects plant immunity. Filamentous fungi exclusively use light as signal; here, light triggers morphogenesis (e.g. asexual/ sexual development), pigment formation and circadian rhythms. Though the light signaling machinery has been extensively studied in some saprophytic fungi such as Neurospora crassa and Aspergillus nidulans, the knowledge about its role in plant pathogens is limited. Botrytis cinerea, as the causal agent of gray mold disease in a wide range of dicots including the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, responds to different wavelengths (near-UV, blue, red, far-red) on the transcriptional level and with altered morphology, and is therefore an excellent model to investigate the impact of light on the pathogen-host interaction. B. cinerea possesses an extended set of PRs compared to saprophytic fungi. Especially, the number of phytochromes has increased suggesting a special role of these PRs. The generation of color-blind B. cinerea mutants is in progress; they will allow for studying the impact of light on the fungus without affecting the host. Furthermore, the use of color-blind A. thaliana lines is envisaged to identify interdependencies between both systems.

Abstract Number: P12-400
Session Type: Poster