7th joint conference "Joint Microbiology & Infection Conference 2024" of the DGHM and VAAM

Abstract: Small RNAs (sRNAs) are short non-coding RNAs that mediate gene silencing in a sequence-specific manner. My lab discovered that some sRNAs from eukaryotic pathogens, such as Botrytis cinerea, can be transported into host plant cells and suppress host immunity genes for successful infection (Weiberg et al., Science 2013). We further demonstrated that such cross-kingdom RNAi is bi-directional. Plants can also send sRNAs into pathogens using extracellular vesicles to silence fungal virulence genes as part of its immune responses (Cai et al., Science 2018). We found that plants have multiple classes of extracellular vesicles, and exosome is the major class responsible for sRNA delivery. We identified a group of RNA binding proteins that contribute to the selective sRNA loading into extracellular vesicles (He et al., Nature Plants, 2021). Recently, we show that fungal pathogen B. cinerea also utilizes extracellular vesicles to transport sRNAs, which can enter plant cells through clathrin-mediated endocytosis pathway (He et al., Nature Communications, 2023). Furthermore, we found that some plant mRNAs can also be secreted by extracellular vesicles and enter fungal cells to be translated for fungal inhibition (Wang et al., Cell Host & Microbe, 2024). Cross-kingdom RNA trafficking is broadly present between many interacting organisms.

Cross-kingdom RNA trafficking between plants and fungal pathogens

Franconia Saal (Plenary Hall)

Hailing Jin

Plenary Speaker