Skip to main content
ARS Home » Northeast Area » Kearneysville, West Virginia » Appalachian Fruit Research Laboratory » Innovative Fruit Production, Improvement, and Protection » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #326332
Title: PCPPI: a comprehensive database for the prediction of Penicillium-crop protein-protein interactions

Author
item YUE, JUNYANG - Hefei University Of Technology
item ZHANG, DANFENG - Hefei University Of Technology
item BAN, RONGJUN - University Of Science And Technology Of China
item MA, XIAOJING - Hefei University Of Technology
item CHEN, DANYANG - Hefei University Of Technology
item LI, GUANGWEI - Hefei University Of Technology
item LIU, JIA - Hefei University Of Technology
item Wisniewski, Michael
item DROBY, SAMIR - Volcani Center (ARO)
item LIU, YONGSHENG - Hefei University Of Technology

Submitted to: Database: The Journal of Biological Databases and Curation
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/15/2016
Publication Date: 2/1/2017
Citation: Yue, J., Zhang, D., Ban, R., Ma, X., Chen, D., Li, G., Liu, J., Wisniewski, M.E., Droby, S., Liu, Y. 2017. PCPPI: a comprehensive database for the prediction of Penicillium-crop protein-protein interactions. Database: The Journal of Biological Databases and Curation. DOI: 10.1093/database/baw170.

Interpretive Summary: It is universally recognized that decreasing postharvest losses of food crops due to fungal and bacterial diseases, as well as senescence, represents an important strategy for ensuring an adequate and safe food supply, while also providing sufficient economic returns to producers (farmers) and processors. In order to develop new, effective strategies to prevent postharvest losses, increased knowledge of how pathogens overcome host defenses is needed. In the current study, a bioinformatics approach was used to develop a searchable database of host (the harvested commodity) proteins that potentially interact with proteins (effectors) in the blue-mold fungus (Penicillium sp.) involved in the establishment of infection. Penicillium species represent one of the major postharvest pathogens worldwide, causing decay in a wide variety of fruit crops. The database is searchable and will represent a freely accessible webpage that can be used to understand protein-protein interactions in postharvest decay caused by blue-mold. This information can be used to better understand the underlying mechanisms that make this fungus pathogenic and could lead to new approaches of disease control.

Technical Abstract: Penicillium expansum, the causal agent of blue mold, is one of the most prevalent postharvest pathogens infecting a wide range of crops after harvest. In response, crops have evolved various defense systems to protect themselves against this and other pathogens. Penicillium-crop interaction is a multifaceted process and mediated by pathogen- and host-derived proteins. Identification and characterization of the inter-species protein-protein interactions (PPIs) are fundamental to elucidating the molecular mechanisms underlying infection processes between P. expansum and plant crops. Here, we have developed the Penicillium-Crop Protein-Protein Interactions (PCPPI) database (http://bdg.hfut.edu.cn/pcppi/index.html). This database is constructed based on experimentally-determined orthologous interactions in pathogen-plant systems and available domain-domain interactions (DDIs) in each PPI. Thus far, it stores information on 9,911 proteins, 439,904 interactions, and 7 host species, including apple, kiwifruit, maize, pear, rice, strawberry, and tomato. All PCPPI datasets are helpful to facilitate the study of pathogen-crop interactions and freely available to the research community.