| Summary: | Colletotrichum coccodes strain DAOM 183088 is considered a potential bioherbicide for velvetleaf (Abutilon theophrasti), a devastating weed in North American corn and soybeans. Risk assessment studies have created a demand for an accurate and robust method to monitor this strain, and to distinguish it from indigenous background population of microorganisms present in the field. Safe biological control management of velvetleaf also requires comprehensive understanding of the pathogenicity determinants employed by this host-specific fungus to establish infection on velvetleaf, an aspect central to a safe biocontrol strategy task. In this study, molecular markers were designed that allow strain specific identification of the bioherbicide strain of C. coccodes and its identification within complex plant and soil matrices. An assay was developed to quantify C. coccodes from deliberate release field soil samples, in which biases caused by soil-originating PCR inhibitors were monitored on a sample per sample basis. The developed external control assay allowed for the estimation of target C. coccodes DNA quantities with normalization for the presence of PCR inhibitory compounds. Kinetic growth curves of disease development were performed for C. coccodes wild-type and T20-a (genetically engineered for hypervirulence with the NEP1 (necrosis and ethylene inducing peptide) gene) strains on velvetleaf leaves over a period of 14 days after C. coccodes infection. The wild-type strain was more efficient at infecting velvetleaf than the transgenic T-20a strain, while expression of NEP1 could not be detected suggesting that the introduced gene may not be transcriptionally active in the transformed strain, a result in conflict with previous observations. Velvetleaf and C. coccodes genes specifically upregulated at 12 and 24 h after fungal infection were cloned and differentially screened by microarrays. The resulting EST collection was sequenced and assigned to putative functions. Early gene up-regulation was confirmed by QRT-PCR analysis for type 3 metal lothionein, EREB, WRKY, and bZIP transcription factors, reticuline oxidase, ascorbate peroxidase, and ACC oxidase gene candidates. In addition, type 2, type 3 metallothionein, and bZIP gene expression profiles were investigated over a period of 14 days after C. coccodes infection, and the results indicated that C. coccodes altered the expression of all three gene analyzed.
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