New insights to develop studies on witch's broom caused by Taphrina wiesneri

Abstract

Taphrina wiesneri, the causal agent of Witch's broom of Prunus widely damage Prunus trees including Cerasus x yedoensis cv. Somei-Yoshino in Japan. Genome comparisons with three closely related Taphrina species showed that four Taphrina species including T. wiesneri have similar genomes to each other but utilize multiple unique strategies in coping with host environments. Gene duplication and horizontal gene transfer seem to be related to establish the host-parasite interaction such as host specificity and difference of symptoms among the pathogens. Furthermore, several plant hormone (auxin, cytokinin and ab- scisic acid) -related genes were identified in the genomes. Taphrina wiesneri probably disturbs hormone balances of the host by producing these hormones using these genes and resulted in the specific symptoms such as witch's broom. Genome information provides new insights to expand studies on eco-physiology of T. wiesneri and to develop new gene-targeted fungicides.