advanced science, 2023, https:// doi: 10.1002/advs.202302606
abstract
mycovirus-mediated hypovirulence has the potential to control fungal diseases. however, the availability of hypovirulence-conferring mycoviruses for plant fungal disease control is limited as most fungal viruses are asymptomatic. in this study, the virus-induced gene silencing (vigs) vector p26-d4 of fusarium graminearum gemytripvirus 1 (fggmtv1), a tripartite circular single-stranded dna mycovirus, is successfully constructed to convert the causal fungus of cereal fusarium head blight (fhb) into a hypovirulent strain. p26-d4, with an insert of a 75-150 bp fragment of the target reporter transgene transcript in both sense and antisense orientations, efficiently triggered gene silencing in fusarium graminearum . notably, the two hypovirulent strains, p26-d4-tri101, and p26-d4-fgpp1, obtained by silencing the virulence-related genes tri101 and fgpp1 with p26-d4, can be used as biocontrol agents to protect wheat from a fungal disease fhb and mycotoxin contamination at the field level. this study not only describes the first mycovirus-derived vigs system but also proves that the vigs vector can be used to establish multiple hypovirulent strains to control pathogenic fungi.
advanced science,if=15.1
