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The biotechnological use and potential of plant pathogenic smut fungi

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Abstract

Plant pathogens of the family Ustilaginaceae parasitise mainly on grasses and cause smut disease. Among the best characterised members of this family are the covered smut fungus Ustilago hordei colonising barley and oat as well as the head smut Sporisorium reilianum and the corn smut Ustilago maydis, both infecting maize. Over the past years, U. maydis in particular has matured into a model system for diverse topics like plant–pathogen interaction, cellular transport processes or DNA repair. Consequently, a broad set of genetic, molecular and system biological methods has been established. This set currently serves as a strong foundation to improve existing and establish novel biotechnological applications. Here, we review four promising aspects covering different fields of applied science: (1) synthesis of secondary metabolites produced at fermenter level. (2) Lipases and other hydrolytic enzymes with potential roles in biocatalytic processes. (3) Degradation of ligno-cellulosic plant materials for biomass conversion. (4) Protein expression based on unconventional secretion, a novel approach inspired by basic research on mRNA transport. Thus, plant pathogenic Ustilaginaceae offer a great potential for future biotechnological applications by combining basic research and applied science.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge all lab members for valuable discussion and critical reading of the manuscript. Special thanks for providing the photos and the chemical structure displayed in Figs. 1, 2, 3 and 4 to Dr. Longjang Fan, Hanne Horn, Dorothee Schipper, Thorsten Langner, Janpeter Stock and Sebastian Schulz, respectively. We further acknowledge the excellent technical assistance by Bettina Axler. Our applied work was supported by the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Research of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHUD) through funding within the CLIB-Graduate Cluster Industrial Biotechnology and by a grant from the Strategic Research Fund of the HHUD to KS. Basic research in the laboratory was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) as part of the German/Mexican research group FOR1334 (FE 448/5-1), DFG grant FE448/3-2 as well as the HHUD graduate schools iGRAD-MOI and iGRAD-Plant.

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  1. Institute for Microbiology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, 40204, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Michael Feldbrügge & Kerstin Schipper

  2. Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Fungal Biodiversity, Karl-von-Frisch-Str. 10, 35043, Marburg, Germany

    Ronny Kellner

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  1. Michael Feldbrügge
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Correspondence to Kerstin Schipper.

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Feldbrügge, M., Kellner, R. & Schipper, K. The biotechnological use and potential of plant pathogenic smut fungi. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 97, 3253–3265 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-013-4777-1

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