Publications by authors named "Petra Happel"

Article Synopsis
  • Fungal pathogens, particularly smut fungi, use specialized molecules called effectors for infection, with smut fungi having smaller genomes and secretomes compared to other plant pathogens.
  • A study analyzed the secretomes of 11 Ustilaginaceae species, identifying 53 core effector protein groups conserved in this family.
  • Testing revealed that 20 out of 53 mutant strains lacking specific effectors showed reduced virulence, leading to the identification of seven new core effectors that contribute to pathogenicity.
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The easyPACId (easy Promoter Activation and Compound Identification) approach is focused on the targeted activation of natural product biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) encoding non-ribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPS), polyketide synthases (PKS), NRPS-PKS hybrids, or other BGC classes. It was applied to entomopathogenic bacteria of the genera Xenorhabdus and Photorhabdus by exchanging the natural promoter of desired BGCs against the L-arabinose inducible PBAD promoter in ∆hfq mutants of the respective strains. The crude (culture) extracts of the cultivated easyPACId mutants are enriched with the single compound or compound class and can be tested directly against various target organisms without further purification of the produced natural products.

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In host-pathogen interactions RNA interference (RNAi) has emerged as a pivotal mechanism to modify both, the immune responses of the host as well as the pathogenicity and virulence of the pathogen. In addition, in some fungi RNAi is also known to affect chromosome biology via its effect on chromatin conformation. Previous studies reported no effect of the RNAi machinery on the virulence of the fungal plant pathogen however the role of RNAi is still poorly understood in this species.

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Ustilago maydis is a biotrophic fungus causing smut disease in corn. The infectious forms are dikaryotic hyphae. Here we analyze mutants lacking the nlt1 transcription factor and investigate why these mutants are unable to induce leaf tumors.

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The biotrophic fungus harbors a chitin deacetylase (CDA) family of six active genes as well as one pseudogene which are differentially expressed during colonization. This includes one secreted soluble CDA (Cda4) and five putatively glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored CDAs, of which Cda7 belongs to a new class of fungal CDAs. Here, we provide a comprehensive functional study of the entire family.

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Chromosome and genome stability are important for normal cell function as instability often correlates with disease and dysfunction of DNA repair mechanisms. Many organisms maintain supernumerary or accessory chromosomes that deviate from standard chromosomes. The pathogenic fungus Zymoseptoria tritici has as many as eight accessory chromosomes, which are highly unstable during meiosis and mitosis, transcriptionally repressed, show enrichment of repetitive elements, and enrichment with heterochromatic histone methylation marks, e.

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The smut fungus is an established model organism for elucidating how biotrophic pathogens colonize plants and how gene families contribute to virulence. Here we describe a step by step protocol for the generation of CRISPR plasmids for single and multiplexed gene editing in Furthermore, we describe the necessary steps required for generating edited clonal populations, losing the Cas9 containing plasmid, and for selecting the desired clones.

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The maize smut fungus is a model organism for elucidating host colonization strategies of biotrophic fungi. Here, we performed an in depth transcriptional profiling of the entire plant-associated development of wild-type strains. In our analysis, we focused on fungal metabolism, nutritional strategies, secreted effectors, and regulatory networks.

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Background: Supernumerary chromosomes have been found in many organisms. In fungi, these "accessory" or "dispensable" chromosomes are present at different frequencies in populations and are usually characterized by higher repetitive DNA content and lower gene density when compared to the core chromosomes. In the reference strain of the wheat pathogen, Zymoseptoria tritici, eight discrete accessory chromosomes have been found.

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The speciation of pathogens can be driven by divergent host specialization. Specialization to a new host is possible via the acquisition of advantageous mutations fixed by positive selection. Comparative genome analyses of closely related species allows for the identification of such key substitutions via inference of genome-wide signatures of positive selection.

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