Transcriptional study of the ABC transporter-encoding genes in response to fungicide treatment and during plant infection in the phytopathogenic fungus Botrytis cinerea

The grey mould fungus Botrytis cinerea causes worldwide losses of commercially important fruits, vegetables and ornamentals. Various fungicides, with different modes of action, are effective against this pathogen, but isolates with multiple fungicide-resistance phenotypes (Multi Drug Resistance, MDR) have been observed with increasing frequency. In fungi, ATP binding cassette (ABC) transporters participate in drug efflux and we report here on the parallel transcriptional study of the predicted ABC transporter-encoding genes in B. cinerea. During plant infection, transcription of all of these genes was activated and over-expression was observed for a few of these genes if the plants were treated with a fungicide prior to infection. In the absence of plant, most of the genes were transcriptionally activated in response to two different fungicides. Both common and specific transcriptional signatures were observed.