Teasing apart a three-way symbiosis: Transcriptome analyses of Curvularia protuberata in response to viral infection and heat stress

The fungus Curvularia protuberata carries a dsRNA virus, Curvularia thermal tolerance virus, and develops a three-way symbiotic relationship with plants to enable their survival in extreme soil temperatures. To learn about the genome of C. protuberata and possible mechanisms of heat tolerance a collection of expressed sequence tags (ESTs) were developed from two subtracted cDNA libraries from mycelial cultures grown under control and heat stress conditions. We analyzed 4207 ESTs that were assembled into 1926 unique transcripts. Of the unique transcripts, 1347 (70%) had sequence similarity with GenBank entries using BLASTX while the rest represented unknown proteins with no matches in the databases. The majority of ESTs with known similarities were homologues to fungal genes. The EST collection presents a rich source of heat stress and viral induced genes of a fungal endophyte that is involved in a symbiotic relationship with plants. Expression profile analyses of some candidate genes suggest possible involvement of osmoprotectants such as trehalose, glycine betaine, and taurine in the heat stress response. The fungal pigment melanin, and heat shock proteins also may be involved in the thermotolerance of C. protuberata in culture. The results assist in understanding the molecular basis of thermotolerance of the three-way symbiosis. Further studies will confirm or refute the involvement of these pathways in stress tolerance.

Research highlights
► Heat stress- and virus-induced ESTs of fungal endophytes involved in a three-way symbiosis.
► Trehalose, betaine, and taurine may be involved in the heat stress response of a three-way symbiosis.
► Melanin and HSP30 of a fungal endophyte may be associated with heat stress tolerance.