A Perilipin Gene from Clonostachys rosea f. Catenulata HL-1-1 Is Related to Sclerotial Parasitism

Clonostachys rosea f. catenulata is a promising biocontrol agent against many fungal plant pathogens. To identify mycoparasitism-related genes from C. rosea f. catenulata, a suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH) cDNA library of C. rosea f. catenulata HL-1-1 that parasitizes the sclerotia of S. sclerotiorum was constructed. 502 clones were sequenced randomly, and thereby 472 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) were identified. Forty-three unigenes were annotated and exhibited similarity to a wide diversity of genes. Quantitative real-time PCR showed that a perilipin-like protein encoding gene, Per3, was up-regulated by 6.6-fold over the control at 96 h under the induction of sclerotia. The full-length sequence of Per3 was obtained via 5' and 3' rapid identification of cDNA ends. Overexpression of Per3 in HL-1-1 significantly enhanced the parasitic ability on sclerotia. The results indicated that Per3 might be involved in the mycoparasitism of C. rosea f. catenulata HL-1-1. This is the first report of a perilipin as a potential biocontrol gene in mycoparasites. The study provides usefu l insights into the interaction between C. rosea f. catenulata and fungal plant pathogens.