Transcriptome analysis reveals the mechanisms involved in the enhanced antagonistic efficacy of Rhodotorula mucilaginosa induced by chitosan

doi:10.1016/j.lwt.2021.110992

LWT

Volume 142, May 2021, 110992

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lwt.2021.110992 Get rights and content

Highlights

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Chitosan induced certain genes related to growth and reproduction in R. mucilaginosa.
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Expression of some genes involved in energy production was enhanced.
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Antioxidant enzyme activities and oxidative stress response genes were induced.
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Expression of genes correspond to various adversity response was increased.

Abstract

Our previous study showed that the biocontrol efficacy of Rhodotorula mucilaginosa against postharvest diseases of strawberries can be significantly enhanced by chitosan. Proteome analysis of R. mucilaginosa induced by chitosan has preliminarily explored the molecular mechanisms involved in the enhanced antagonistic efficacy of R. mucilaginosa induced by chitosan. In this study, transcriptome analysis of R. mucilaginosa cultured with and without chitosan was performed, and the activities of CAT, PPO, POD, and SOD were also investigated to further explore the involved mechanisms. The results indicated that the activities of these antioxidant enzymes in R. mucilaginosa were all significantly increased by 0.5 g/100 mL chitosan. Especially, POD activity was about 1.5 - fold higher than the control. Transcriptome and bioinformatic analysis revealed that significant number of genes involved in growth and reproduction, adhesion, energy production, oxidative stress response and other stress response were all induced by chitosan, which resulted in the enhanced antagonistic efficacy of R. mucilaginosa. These results provide a reference for the future study on controlling postharvest disease of fruit and vegetables by antagonist yeast and provide a theoretical basis for the practical application of antagonist yeast.

Introduction

Pathogens are responsible for the occurrence of postharvest decay of fruit and vegetables. Rhizopus decay and gray mold decay caused by Rhizopus stolonifer and Botrytis cinerea respectively are the main reasons for the loss of postharvest strawberries (Zhang, Ge, Chen, Zhao, & Zhang, 2014). It has been reported that antagonist yeasts can effectively inhibit decay-causing-fungi, which is an environmentally friendly alternative strategy to chemical fungicides (Liu, Sui, Wisniewski, Droby, & Liu, 2013). However, the application of antagonistic yeast alone in controlling postharvest diseases is not sufficient to achieve the biocontrol effect comparable to chemical fungicides (Zhao et al., 2020). Therefore, it is imperative to enhance the biocontrol efficacy of antagonistic yeasts to promote its practical application.

The biocontrol efficacy of antagonist yeast can be significantly improved by cultivating them in an elicitor supplemented medium, such as β-glucan, methyl jasmonate and chitosan. The antagonistic yeast cultured with elicitors can induce disease resistance of postharvest fruit and vegetables. It has been reported that the activities of ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and chitinase (CHI) of grapes were increased by Pichia anomala incubated with chitosan to induce the disease resistance of the host (Godana et al., 2020). He et al. (2020) found that the activities of peroxidase (POD), polyphenol oxidase (PPO), phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) and catalase (CAT) were all increased in apples treated with methyl jasmonate-induced Meyerozyma guilliermondii to defense against pathogen. The increased activities of PPO, POD and CAT were also observed in pears treated with β-glucan-induced Cryptococcus podzolicus (Zhao et al., 2020). In addition, the antagonistic efficacy of yeasts is also an important aspect related to the improvement of biocontrol efficacy. Zhao et al. (2020) explored the effects of β-glucan on the antagonistic ability of C. podzolicus against postharvest decay of pears. The transcriptome analysis indicated that the utilization rate of polysaccharide, synthesis of cell walls and energy and antioxidant capacity were enhanced by β-glucan in C. podzolicus that helped the yeast to adapt towards environmental stress and improved the antagonistic efficacy. Furthermore, increased β-1,3-glucanase and CAT activities were also observed in β-glucan-induced C. podzolicus. The increased antagonistic capability of β-glucan induced C. podzolicus, together with the induced disease resistance of pears, resulted in the enhanced biocontrol efficacy of this yeast.

Chitosan is a β(1–4) linked d-glucosamine polymer with a high molecular weight. It has been widely used in food preservation and shows great potential (Feng, Bansal, & Yang, 2016; Wang, Li, Chen, Li, & Rashid, 2020; Xin, Jin, Chen, Lai, & Yang, 2020; Zhang, Chen, Lai, Wang, & Yang, 2018). Previous studies by our research team have indicated that chitosan could significantly enhance the biocontrol efficacy of R. mucilaginosa against postharvest diseases of strawberries (Gu, Zhang, Gu, Zhao, & Zhang, 2020; Zhang et al., 2014). Proteome and transcriptome analysis of strawberries suggested that chitosan-induced R. mucilaginosa improved the disease resistance of strawberries compared with R. mucilaginosa cultured without chitosan (Gu et al., 2021). However, the antagonistic efficacy of R. mucilaginosa is also vital for the biocontrol efficacy of this yeast. To reveal the mechanisms behind the enhanced antagonistic efficacy of R. mucilaginosa by chitosan, proteome analysis has been performed on R. mucilaginosa cultured with or without chitosan (Gu et al., 2020). Therefore the present study generally aimed to further explore the possible mechanisms involved in the antagonistic efficacy of R. mucilaginosa enhanced by chitosan based on transcriptome and antioxidant enzymes analysis. The research contents of this study mainly include the effects of chitosan on the activities of antioxidant enzymes in R. mucilaginosa, and the effects of chitosan on gene expression levels of R. mucilaginosa based on transcriptome analysis. And then, the relative expression levels of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were verified by reverse transcription quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR) technology.

Section snippets

Chitosan

Chitosan with 90% deacetylation was purchased from Sinopharm Chemical Reagent Co., Ltd (Shanghai, China).

Culture condition of yeast

R. mucilaginosa was cultured in NYDB (YA) or NYDB supplemented with 0.5 g/100 mL chitosan (YB) at 28 °C for 24 h according to our previous study (Zhang et al., 2014).

Extraction of crude extract

The cultures of R. mucilaginosa (YA or YB) were harvested and centrifuged at 7000×g, 4 °C for 10 min. The collected cells were washed three times by sterile distilled water and immediately ground with liquid nitrogen after

Effect of chitosan on the activities of antioxidant enzymes of R. mucilaginosa

The activities of CAT, PPO, POD and SOD in R. mucilaginosa cultured in NYDB or NYDB added with chitosan were shown in Fig. 1. Obviously, the activities of these four enzymes in R. mucilaginosa induced by chitosan were all significantly higher than those in R. mucilaginosa cultured in NYDB without chitosan. Especially, POD activity of R. mucilaginosa induced by chitosan was about 1.5 - fold higher than that of the yeast cultured in NYDB without chitosan.

Identification of DEGs

A total of 34.62 Gb clean data with a GC

Discussion

The biocontrol efficacy of R. mucilaginosa against postharvest diseases of strawberries was significantly improved by chitosan-inducing cultivation (Gu et al., 2020). Proteome analysis of R. mucilaginosa has revealed that the antagonistic efficacy of R. mucilaginosa was enhanced by chitosan (Gu et al., 2020). However, enzyme assays and transcriptome analysis should be further performed to provide additional knowledge about the enhanced antagonistic efficacy of R. mucilaginosa by chitosan. In

Conclusion

The summary of mechanisms involved in the enhanced antagonistic efficacy of R. mucilaginosa induced by chitosan was schematically illustrated in Fig. 6, based on the results of antioxidant enzyme activities and transcriptome analysis. Some genes involved in growth and reproduction were up-regulated in R. mucilaginosa by chitosan to enhance the ability of yeast to compete with the pathogen for nutrients and space. Furthermore, the expression of some genes related to the formation of biofilm and

Availability of data

The raw datasets are available in the NCBI Short Read Archive (SRA) under the accession number PRJNA628936.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Xiaoyun Zhang: Methodology, Project administration, Data curation, Writing - original draft, Funding acquisition. Ning Gu: Methodology, Project administration, Data curation, Writing - original draft. You Zhou: Methodology, Project administration. Esa Abiso Godana: Writing - review & editing. Solairaj Dhanasekaran: Writing - review & editing. Xiangyu Gu: Methodology, Project administration. Lina Zhao: Project administration, Writing - review & editing. Hongyin Zhang: Supervision,

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (31772369, 31772037) and the Jiangsu Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Fund (CX (18)2028).

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¹: These authors contributed equally to this work and should be considered co-first authors.

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Transcriptome analysis reveals the mechanisms involved in the enhanced antagonistic efficacy of Rhodotorula mucilaginosa induced by chitosan

Highlights

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Chitosan

Culture condition of yeast

Extraction of crude extract

Effect of chitosan on the activities of antioxidant enzymes of R. mucilaginosa

Identification of DEGs

Discussion

Conclusion

Availability of data

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Declaration of competing interest

Acknowledgement

Biological Control

Molecular Aspects of Medicine

Food Chemistry

Lebensmittel-Wissenschaft und -Technologie- Food Science and Technology

Postharvest Biology and Technology

Biological Control

Journal of Biological Chemistry

Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology

Journal of Biological Chemistry

Cell

International Journal of Food Microbiology

International Journal of Food Microbiology

Postharvest Biology and Technology

Journal of Biological Chemistry

Journal of Biological Chemistry

International Journal of Food Microbiology

Scientia Horticulturae

International Journal of Biological Macromolecules

LWT-Food Science and Technology

Frontiers in Microbiology

Postharvest Biology and Technology

Molecular analysis of CaMnt1p, a mannosyl transferase important for adhesion and virulence of Candida albicans

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

pH response transcription factor PacC controls salt stress tolerance and expression of the P-Type Na+-ATPase ena1 in Fusarium oxysporum

Eukaryotic Cell

pH response transcription factor PacC controls salt stress tolerance and expression of the P-Type Na⁺-ATPase ena1 in Fusarium oxysporum