Javier Moraga

Universidad de Cádiz | UCA · Department of Biomedicine, Biotechnology and Public Health

The ascomycete Botrytis cinerea Pers. Fr., classified within the family Sclerotiniaceae, is the agent that causes grey mould disease which infects at least 1400 plant species, including crops of economic importance such as grapes and strawberries. The life cycle of B. cinerea consists of two phases: asexual (anamorph, Botrytis cinerea Pers. Fr.) an...

The genus Phytophthora with more than 100 described species and 58 officially recognized, phylogenetically distributed in ten clades, are important pathogenic oomycete chromists that cause important diseases in agricultural crops, trees and forests worldwide. This genus is known as \"The Plant Destroyer” which causes great economic losses with cost...

Marine microorganisms have developed metabolic and enzymatic systems considerably different from their terrestrial homologues due to the special physical and chemical conditions of the marine ecosystem. Marine bacteria and fungi have proven to be a source of new enzymes for conducting regio- and stereoselective chemical reactions that cannot be per...

Marine bacteria and fungi have proven to be a source of new enzymes for conducting regio- and stereoselective chemical reactions that sometimes cannot be performed by traditional synthetic methods. In this study, the marine-derived fungi Emericellopsis maritima, isolated from sediment samples collected along an intertidal gradient of Bay of Cádiz,...

The oceans cover about 70% of the Earth’s surface hosting a rich biodiversity that is mostly still uncharacterized. As part of this broad biodiversity, marine microorganisms have proven to be an interesting and relative unexplored source for the discovery of new bioactive compounds. In this study, the secondary metabolism of the marine-derived fung...

The authors wish to make it known that we mistakenly used some unpublished data from the Joint Genome Institute (JGI) database in some parts of this article in a way that violates the JGI usage agreement. We apologize to the principal investigators of the JGI Community Sequencing Projects (below) for this error.

Colombia is included in the group of megadiverse countries, and it possesses the second largest biodiversity in the world. However, the number of bacteria and fungi reported in Colombia seems to be a much lower amount than that was expected. The richness and abundance of microorganisms could make this country as a potential source for obtaining new...

Botrytis cinerea is a necrotrophic fungal pathogen that affects a total of 586 genera representing approximately 1400 plant species. This pathogen produces two families of phytotoxins involved in its infection process i.e. botrydial and its relatives, and botcinic and botcineric acids and their relatives, botcinins. The botrydial biosynthetic clust...

Indanols are a family of chemical compounds that have been widely studied due to their broad range of biological activity. They are also important intermediates used as synthetic precursors to other products with important applications in pharmacology. Enantiomerically pure chloroindanol derivatives exhibiting antifungal activity against the phytop...

Fermentation of the endophytic fungus Aplosporella javeedii on solid rice medium in presence of either 3.5% NaNO 3 or 3.5% monosodium glutamate caused a significant change of the fungal metabolite pattern compared to fungal controls grown only on rice. Chemical investigation of the former fungal extracts yielded 11 new lactam derivatives, aplospore...

The genus Colletotrichum is considered one of the most relevant plant pathogens insofar as it is capable of causing damage to a wide variety of herbaceous and woody plants. The genome of 25 species of Colletotrichum, including 28 different strains, has recently been published; 15 of these strains are still at the annotation stage and thirteen are n...

The search for new biocatalysts is increasing significantly in recent years, especially to obtain novel derivatives with improved properties for new drugs, agrochemicals or fragrances which are difficult to obtain using conventional methods. Fungi are traditionally the most frequently studied cell systems and from among the fungi used in biotransfo...

Certain acetic and lactic acid bacteria are major causes of quality defects in musts and wines, giving rise to defects such as a “vinegary,” “sharp, like nail polish-remover” taste or preventing alcoholic and/or malolactic fermentation. Sulfur dioxide is the major tool currently used in the control of these bacteria in wine. The aim of this work wa...

The role of the sesquiterpene botrydial in the interaction of the phytopathogenic fungus Botrytis cinerea and plant-associated bacteria was analyzed. From a collection of soil and phyllospheric bacteria, nine strains sensitive to growth-inhibition by B. cinerea were identified. B. cinerea mutants unable to produce botrydial caused no bacterial inhi...

Research on the biodegradation of emerging pollutants is gained great focus regarding their detrimental effects on the environment and humans. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the ability of the ascomycetes Thielavia sp HJ22 to remove the phenolic xenobiotics nonylphenol (NP), 4-tert-octylphenol (4-tert-OP) and 2,4-dichlorophenol...

Botcinic acid is a phytotoxic polyketide involved in the virulence of the gray mold fungus Botrytis cinerea. Here, we aimed to investigate the specific regulation of the cluster of Bcboa genes that is responsible for its biosynthesis. Our analysis showed that this cluster is located in a subtelomeric genomic region containing alternating G + C/A +...

Botrytis cinerea is the causal agent of gray mold disease and is responsible for the loss of millions of dollars in crops in worldwide. Currently, this pathogen exhibits increasing resistance to conventional fungicides; therefore, better control methods and novel compounds with a more specific mechanism of action but without biocidal effects, are r...

The fungal genus Colletotrichum contains about 190 species, many of which are responsible for serious plant diseases including those of commercial crops. These species infect a wide range of crops in the tropical, sub-tropical and temperate regions of the world. The diseases caused by Colletotrichum species are known as “anthracnose diseases” and a...

Acetic and some lactic acid bacteria are the main reason for the loss of quality of musts and wines, giving rise to defects such as “vinegary”, “chopped” or preventing alcoholic and / or malolactic fermentation. The solution to this problem consists in the application of authorized bactericidal agents, such as sulfurous. The aim of this work is to...

Fungal bunch rot of grapes leads to production of detrimental flavour compounds, some of which are well characterised but others remain unidentified. The current study uses an untargeted metabolomics approach to classify volatile profiles of grape juices based on the presence of different fungal pathogens. Individual grape berries were inoculated w...

A thorough study of the fermentation broth of three strains of Botrytis cinerea which were grown on a modified Czapek-Dox medium supplemented with 5 ppm copper sulphate, yielded five undescribed metabolites. These metabolites possessed a sesquiterpenoid (+)-4-epi-eremophil-9-ene carbon skeleton which was enantiomeric to that of the phytoalexin, cap...

The fungus Trichoderma arundinaceum (Ta37) has a significant biocontrol application which has been related to the production of the trichothecene, harzianum A (2). Previous studies with a strain of T. arundinaceum which was blocked for the production of 2, revealed the existence of a chemical cross-regulation between the biocontrol fungus and its t...

Botrytis cinerea is considered a model organism for the study of plant-pathogen interaction showing great genetic diversity and a high degree of morphological variability depending on environmental conditions. The use of new compounds and plant-based elicitors may trigger the expression of different B. cinerea genes, providing new sources of virule...

Main conclusion: The phytotoxin botrydial triggers PA production in tomato cell suspensions via PLD and PLC/DGK activation. PLC/DGK-derived PA is partially required for botrydial-induced ROS generation. Phosphatidic acid (PA) is a phospholipid second messenger involved in the induction of plant defense responses. It is generated via two distinct e...

Botrytis cinerea is a polyphagous fungal parasite which causes serious damage to more than 200 plant species and consequent economic losses for commercial crops. This pathogen produces two families of phytotoxins, the botryanes and botcinins, which are involved in the infection mechanism. The B. cinerea genome has provided a complete picture of the...

Botrydial (BOT) is a non-host specific phytotoxin produced by the polyphagous phytopathogenic fungus Botrytis cinerea. The genomic region of the BOT biosynthetic gene cluster was investigated and revealed two additional genes named Bcbot6 and Bcbot7. Analysis revealed that the G+C/A+T-equilibrated regions that contain the Bcbot genes alternate with...

Over two hundred species of plants can be infected by the phytopathogenic fungus Botrytis cinerea under a range of different environmental conditions. In response to these the fungus produces unique terpenoid and polyketide metabolites. Parts of the plants may be killed by the phytotoxin, botrydial enabling the fungus to feed on the dead cells. In...

The sequencing of the genomes of the B05.10 and T4 strains of the fungus Botrytis cinerea revealed an abundance of novel biosynthetic gene clusters, the majority of which were unexpected on the basis of the previous analyses of the fermentation of these and closely related species. By systematic alteration of easy accessible cultivation parameters,...

Trichoderma arundinaceum (Ta37) and Botrytis cinerea produce the sesquiterpenes harzianum A (HA) and botrydial (BOT), respectively, and also the polyketides aspinolides and botcinins (Botc), respectively. We analyzed the role of BOT and Botcs in the Ta37-B. cinerea interaction, including transcriptomic changes of genes involved in HA (tri) and ergo...

Isotopic labelling experiments and the study of mutants with disrupted genes encoding botcinic acid have revealed a common link in the biosynthesis of the polyketide toxins excreted by Botrytis cinerea: botcinins and botrylactones. Furthermore, the results reported here shed light on the origin of the starter unit, thereby solving a long-standing m...

Botrytis cinerea is an aggressive plant pathogen causing gray mold disease on various plant species. In this study, we identified the genetic origin for significantly differing phenotypes of the two sequenced B. cinerea isolates, B05.10 and T4, with regard to light-dependent differentiation, oxalic acid (OA) formation and virulence. By conducting a...

Virulence assays on P. vulgaris using non-sporulating mycelia for inoculation. Strains were grown for 2 d on solid CM medium and then equal plugs of the non-sporulating mycelia were put on the leaves. Diameters of eight lesions per strain were determined after 2 days of incubation. (TIF)

Growth and conidiation pattern of bcvel1 mutants. Strains were grown for 7 days on complete medium supplemented with 0.02% SDS that results in comparably reduced daily growth rates of both WT:B05.10 and the bcvel1 deletion mutant, illustrating the different conidiation pattern in response to the 12 h light/12 h dark rhythm. Daily growth rates are:...

Identification of a BcVEL1-dependent gene cluster. (A) Expression data derived from the microarray experiment for predicted genes on Bt4_SuperContig_144_1 (BofuT4_T091900 to BofuT4_T092110). Shown are the mean values and standard deviations of the normalized intensities of the four biological replicates. (B) Comparison of genomic regions from B. ci...

Identification of a BcVEL1-dependent gene cluster. (DOCX)

Response of Δbcvel1 mutants to oxidative and osmotic stress. (A) Colony appearance of Δbcvel1 and wild type B05.10 on complete medium (CM) without stressors (control) and CM supplemented with 7.5 mM H2O2 or 500 µM menadione for induction of oxidative stress, and with 1.4 M sorbitol or 0.7 M NaCl for induction of osmotic stress. Strains were incubat...

Sensitivity to chlorate as indication for nitrate reductase activity. Strains were grown on solid complete medium (CM) without and with 0.4 M KClO3, respectively. Diameters of six colonies per strain and condition were measured after 3 days of incubation in light-dark conditions. Increased sensitivity to chlorate indicates increased nitrate reducta...

Genes located in the identified 115-kb genomic region linked with sclerotia formation. Annotated proteins from B. cinerea T4, B05.10 and S. sclerotiorum 1980 are listed. Possible gene functions were assigned due to BlastX results. Deletion mutants of genes encoding the Gα subunit BCG3 and the stress-activated MAP kinase BcSAK1 were previously descr...

Multiple sequence alignment of BcVEL1 with other VeA homologues. The alignment was generated using ClustalW (http://genius.embnet.dkfz-heidelberg.de/menu/w2h/w2hdkfz/). Sequences aligned are: B. cinerea BcVEL1 (HE977589; end of the T4 protein is indicated by a red arrow), S. sclerotinia VEL1 (SS1G_07626), N. crassa VE-1 (CAB92641), F. fujikuroi VEL...

Heterologous complementation in Fusarium fujikuroi. Phenotypes of the F. fujikuroi wild-type strain IMI58289, the Ffvel1 deletion mutant and three independent transformants expressing bcvel1 in the ΔFfvel1 background are shown. (A) Colony morphologies of strains grown on different media for 10 days in continuous darkness. CM, complete medium; V8, v...

Construction of bcvel1 mutants. (A) Replacement of bcvel1 by a deletion construct containing a hygromycin resistance cassette (PtrpC::hph) or a complementation construct comprising the bcvel1B05.10 open reading frame and a nourseothricin resistance cassette (PtrpC::nat1). The latter one was transformed into B05.10:Δbcvel1 and isolate T4. (B) Diagno...

BcVEL1 affects the formation of the dark pigment melanin. (A) Melanin formation in liquid cultures. Strains were grown for 48 h in liquid medium at 20°C, 150 rpm, in light-dark (LD) or continuous darkness (DD), with or without tricyclazole (10 µg/ml) representing a specific reductase inhibitor. Due the inhibition of the enzymes involved in later st...

Gene Ontology enrichment analyses of the differentially expressed genes in WT:B05.10 and Δbcvel1 using the GOEAST tool. (A) Enrichment analyses of the 227 under-expressed genes in Δbcvel1; GOEAST enrichment based on 109 genes with GO. (B) Enrichment analyses of the 419 over-expressed genes in Δbcvel1; GOEAST enrichment based on 216 genes with GO. T...

List of the 227 under-expressed genes in Δ bcvel1 mutant. (DOCX)

List of the 419 over-expressed genes in Δ bcvel1 mutant. (DOCX)

Primers used to amplify the microsatellites markers on strains T4, 32 and their progeny. (DOCX)

Primers used for sequencing and mutant construction. (DOCX)

Session 3 : Post-Genome Functional Analysis : P3.6

Trichoderma brevicompactum IBT 40841 produces trichodermin, a trichothecene-type toxin that shares most of the steps of its biosynthesis with harzianum A, another trichothecene produced by several Trichoderma species. The first specific step in the trichothecene biosynthesis is carried out by a terpene cylcase, trichodiene synthase, that catalyzes...

The grey mould fungus Botrytis cinerea produces two major phytotoxins, the sesquiterpene botrydial, for which the biosynthesis gene cluster has been characterized previously, and the polyketide botcinic acid. We have identified two polyketide synthase (PKS) encoding genes, BcPKS6 and BcPKS9, that are up-regulated during tomato leaf infection. Gene...

Botrytis cinerea, which causes gray-mold rot, attacks a wide range of plant species. To understand the infection process, the role of a putative transcriptional regulator, BcReg1 (regulator 1), in pathogenicity was studied. This transcriptional regulator shows similarity to the morphological switch regulators Candida albicans Wor1 and Histoplasma c...

Trichoderma brevicompactum produces trichodermin, a simple trichothecene-type toxin that shares the first steps of the sesquiterpene biosynthetic pathway with other phytotoxic trichothecenes from Fusarium spp. Trichodiene synthase catalyses the conversion of farnesyl pyrophosphate to trichodiene and it is encoded by the tri5 gene that was cloned an...

Cited By (since 1996):2, Export Date: 23 April 2013, Source: Scopus, CODEN: TETRA, :doi 10.1016/j.tet.2010.11.022, Language of Original Document: English, Correspondence Address: Hernández-Galán, R.; Departamento de Química Orgánica, Facultad de Ciencias, UCA, Polígono Rio San Pedro s/n, 11510 Puerto Real, Cádiz, Spain; email: rosario.hernandez@uca...