The Role of Cutinase and its Impact on Pathogenicity of Colletotrichum truncatum

However, the importance of cutinase in pathogenesis of fungi remains controversial since disruption of the cutinase gene in various fungi resulted in contradictory results. The overexpression of MfCut1 in Monilinia fructicola increased pathogenicity on Prunus spp. and targeted gene replacement of Magnaporthe grisea and Pyrenopeziza brassicae cutinases dramatically reduced pathogenicity on rice, barley and oilseed rape hosts, respectively On the contrary, disruption of cutinase from other fungi such as Nectria haematococca Pathogenicity of transformants in both fungi was unaltered compared to their wild type and control counterparts. The relevance of cutinase gene in fungal pathogenicity of C. truncatum however, has not yet been identified. Cutinase has been proposed to be the hydrolyzing agent of the plant cuticle and/or elicitor of cutin monomers to trigger signaling pathways within fungal pathogens [17,18]. Despite the identification of cutinase in a range of Colletotrichum species such as in C. gloeoesporioides [3,6], C. kahawae [6], C. trifolii [19], C. lagenarium [20] and C. capsici [5], characterisation of the gene and its function in the C. truncatum-chili interaction remains unelucidated.