Gene expression change during teliospore germination in Ustilago maydis.

摘要

The fungal pathogen Ustilago maydis induces the formation of tumours in maize. Tumour production provides an environment for hyphal differentiation, leading to the formation of thick-walled, diploid teliospores. These spores are a dispersal agent and their germination leads to new rounds of infection. The morphological changes during U. maydis teliospore germination have been described; however, specific molecular events that facilitate this process have not been identified. Through the construction and hybridization of microarrays containing a set of 3918 non-redundant cDNAs we identified genes differentially regulated during germination. Teliospores induced to germinate for 4 and 11 hours were selected for comparison to dormant teliospores. Genes identified as differentially expressed included those representing undescribed molecular events in teliospore germination as well as characterized genes previously shown to be required for teliospore germination. This study represents the first largescale investigation of gene expression change during teliospore germination.