Proteomics approach to study Botrytis cinerea secreted proteins under different growth conditions

Abstract

Botrytis cinerea is a filamentous fungus infecting more than 200 plant species, causing significant economic losses worldwide. Filamentous fungi have been known to secrete enzymes involved in polymer, oligosaccharides and protein decomposition. The ability of B. cinerea to infect a broad range of plants suggests that the fungus secretes a variable profile of enzymes to attack in different cellular environments. Recent advances in mass spectrometry, high pressure liquid chromatography, bioinformatics, and the availability of a multitude of genome sequences have made it possible to study the secretome of fungi in a high throughput manner. In this study, proteomic analysis of the B. cinerea secreted proteins was performed under various growth conditions. B. cinerea was grown on solid substrate and submerged liquid cultures with access to one of various carbon growth sources (sucrose, partially esterified pectin, highly esterified pectin, strawberry fruit extract, tomato fruit extract, Arabidopsis leaves extract). Solid substrates of nylon or cellophane membrane were utilized for B. cinerea secretome studies. More than 200 B. cinerea proteins were identified in various secretome studies. Differences in B. cinerea secretome profiles were observed between solid and liquid culture growth conditions. Differences were also observed depending on the carbon source and solid substrate used for B. cinerea growth. However there were proteins identified which were constituent in all the secretome of B. cinerea. We discuss the dependence of B. cinerea secretion on growth conditions.