Identification and cloning of CAP1 from colletotrichum sps.
Student name: Ms Anuradha Dhingra
Guide: Dr Anandita Singh
Year of completion: 2013
Host Organisation: The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI), New Delhi
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Dr Swatismita Dhar
Abstract: The Colletotrichum sps. of fungi infect a large variety of crops to cause anthracnose. The
appressorial formation plays a pivotal role in the infection mechanism in the host plant by this
fungal species. The CAP1 genes have been reported to be involved in the formation of the
appressoria in fungal pathogens Magnaporthe oryzae. CAP1 interacts with the adenylyl
complex for germination of germ tube from the appressorium. In this study, CAP1orthologues of
the various Colletotrichum sps. are identified and the protein sequences of these genes are
compared to the CAP1 protein sequences of other fungi and higher eukaryotes to view the extent
of conservation among species and evolutionary relationship amongst them. The pathogenicity
of the Colletotrichum gloeosporioides and Colletotrichum capsici on the fruit of tomato and
chilli, respectively; is determined through fungal pathogenicity assay. Conserved and the nonconserved
regions of the gene were PCR amplified. The CAP1 specific products, once isolated
and cloned in a vector, may be further used for the construction of RNAi vector and silencing
CAP1 expression in the fungal pathogen. Thus, the transgenic plants harboring the RNAi
construct on Colletotrichum infection the CAP1 of the phytopathogen will be silenced leading to
disruption in appressoria formation and consequently no infection will occur.
Keywords: Colletotrichum, appressorium, CAP1, anthracnose, siRNA.
