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Abstract

During infection, pathogens secrete effectors, key elements of pathogenesis. In several phytopathogenic fungi, synchronous waves of effector genes are expressed during plant infection to manipulate and silence plant defenses. In Zymoseptoria tritici, causing septoria leaf blotch of wheat, at least two waves of effector genes are expressed, during the asymptomatic phase and at the switch to necrotrophy. The underlying factors responsible for the fine-tuned regulation of effector gene expression in this pathogen are unknown. Previously, a detailed map of the chromatin structure in vitro of Z. tritici was generated by chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by high-throughput sequencing (ChIP-seq) targeting histone modifications typical for euchromatin (di-methylation of the lysine 4 of the histone H3, H3K4me2) or heterochromatin (tri-methylation of the lysine 9 and 27 of the histone H3, H3K9me3 and H3K27me3). Based on the hypothesis that changes in the histone modifications contribute to the transcriptional control of pathogenicity-related genes, we tested whether different sets of genes are associated with different histone modifications in vitro. We correlated the in vitro histone maps with in planta transcriptome data and show that genes located in heterochromatic domains in vitro are highly up-regulated at the switch toward necrotrophy. We combined our integrated analyses of genomic, transcriptomic and epigenomic data with ChIP-qPCR in planta and thereby provide further evidence for the involvement of histone modifications in the transcriptional dynamic of putative pathogenicity-related genes of Z. tritici.