{"date_created":"2025-07-14T12:40:29Z","type":"journal_article","abstract":[{"text":"In vertebrates and plants, dsRNA plays crucial roles as PAMP and as a mediator of RNAi. How higher fungi respond to dsRNA is not known. We demonstrate that Magnaporthe oryzae (Mo), a globally significant crop pathogen, internalizes dsRNA across a broad size range of 21 to about 3000 bp. Incubation of fungal conidia with 10 ng/µL dsRNA, regardless of size or sequence, induced aberrant germ tube elongation, revealing a strong sequence-unspecific effect of dsRNA in this fungus. Accordingly, the synthetic dsRNA analogue poly(I:C) and dsRNA of various sizes and sequences elicited canonical fungal stress pathways, including nuclear accumulation of the stress marker mitogen-activated protein kinase Hog1p and production of ROS. Leaf application of dsRNA to the cereal model species Brachypodium distachyon suppressed the progression of leaf blast disease. Notably, the sequence-unspecific effect of dsRNA depends on higher doses, while pure sequence-specific effects were observed at low concentrations of dsRNA ( < 0.03 ng/µL). The protective effects of dsRNA were further enhanced by maintaining a gap of at least seven days between dsRNA application and inoculation, and by stabilising the dsRNA in alginate-chitosan nanoparticles. Overall, our study opens up additional possibilities for the development and use of dsRNA pesticides in agriculture.","lang":"eng"}],"doi":"10.1038/s42003-025-07554-6","status":"public","publication":"Communications Biology","year":"2025","citation":{"apa":"Zheng, Y., Moorlach, B. W., Jakobs-Schönwandt, D., Patel, A., Pastacaldi, C., Jacob, S., … Ladera Carmona, M. (2025). Exogenous dsRNA triggers sequence-specific RNAi and fungal stress responses to control Magnaporthe oryzae in Brachypodium distachyon. <i>Communications Biology</i>, <i>8</i>(1). <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-07554-6\">https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-07554-6</a>","ama":"Zheng Y, Moorlach BW, Jakobs-Schönwandt D, et al. Exogenous dsRNA triggers sequence-specific RNAi and fungal stress responses to control Magnaporthe oryzae in Brachypodium distachyon. <i>Communications Biology</i>. 2025;8(1). doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-07554-6\">10.1038/s42003-025-07554-6</a>","bibtex":"@article{Zheng_Moorlach_Jakobs-Schönwandt_Patel_Pastacaldi_Jacob_Sede_Heinlein_Poranen_Kogel_et al._2025, title={Exogenous dsRNA triggers sequence-specific RNAi and fungal stress responses to control Magnaporthe oryzae in Brachypodium distachyon}, volume={8}, DOI={<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-07554-6\">10.1038/s42003-025-07554-6</a>}, number={1121}, journal={Communications Biology}, publisher={Springer Science and Business Media LLC}, author={Zheng, Ying and Moorlach, Benjamin Willem and Jakobs-Schönwandt, Desiree and Patel, Anant and Pastacaldi, Chiara and Jacob, Stefan and Sede, Ana R. and Heinlein, Manfred and Poranen, Minna M. and Kogel, Karl-Heinz and et al.}, year={2025} }","mla":"Zheng, Ying, et al. “Exogenous DsRNA Triggers Sequence-Specific RNAi and Fungal Stress Responses to Control Magnaporthe Oryzae in Brachypodium Distachyon.” <i>Communications Biology</i>, vol. 8, no. 1, 121, Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2025, doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-07554-6\">10.1038/s42003-025-07554-6</a>.","short":"Y. Zheng, B.W. Moorlach, D. Jakobs-Schönwandt, A. Patel, C. Pastacaldi, S. Jacob, A.R. Sede, M. Heinlein, M.M. Poranen, K.-H. Kogel, M. Ladera Carmona, Communications Biology 8 (2025).","ieee":"Y. Zheng <i>et al.</i>, “Exogenous dsRNA triggers sequence-specific RNAi and fungal stress responses to control Magnaporthe oryzae in Brachypodium distachyon,” <i>Communications Biology</i>, vol. 8, no. 1, 2025.","alphadin":"<span style=\"font-variant:small-caps;\"><span style=\"font-variant:small-caps;\">Zheng, Ying</span> ; <span style=\"font-variant:small-caps;\">Moorlach, Benjamin Willem</span> ; <span style=\"font-variant:small-caps;\">Jakobs-Schönwandt, Desiree</span> ; <span style=\"font-variant:small-caps;\">Patel, Anant</span> ; <span style=\"font-variant:small-caps;\">Pastacaldi, Chiara</span> ; <span style=\"font-variant:small-caps;\">Jacob, Stefan</span> ; <span style=\"font-variant:small-caps;\">Sede, Ana R.</span> ; <span style=\"font-variant:small-caps;\">Heinlein, Manfred</span> ; u. a.</span>: Exogenous dsRNA triggers sequence-specific RNAi and fungal stress responses to control Magnaporthe oryzae in Brachypodium distachyon. In: <i>Communications Biology</i> Bd. 8, Springer Science and Business Media LLC (2025), Nr. 1","chicago":"Zheng, Ying, Benjamin Willem Moorlach, Desiree Jakobs-Schönwandt, Anant Patel, Chiara Pastacaldi, Stefan Jacob, Ana R. Sede, et al. “Exogenous DsRNA Triggers Sequence-Specific RNAi and Fungal Stress Responses to Control Magnaporthe Oryzae in Brachypodium Distachyon.” <i>Communications Biology</i> 8, no. 1 (2025). <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-07554-6\">https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-07554-6</a>."},"_id":"6059","publication_identifier":{"eissn":["2399-3642"]},"article_number":"121","main_file_link":[{"open_access":"1"}],"tmp":{"image":"/images/cc_by.png","short":"CC BY (4.0)","name":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0)","legal_code_url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode"},"date_updated":"2025-07-17T09:31:11Z","language":[{"iso":"eng"}],"project":[{"_id":"f89a05bb-bcea-11ed-9442-ed382659bc06","name":"Bielefelder Institut für Angewandte Materialforschung"}],"publisher":"Springer Science and Business Media LLC","title":"Exogenous dsRNA triggers sequence-specific RNAi and fungal stress responses to control Magnaporthe oryzae in Brachypodium distachyon","volume":8,"oa":"1","issue":"1","author":[{"full_name":"Zheng, Ying","last_name":"Zheng","first_name":"Ying"},{"id":"243413","orcid_put_code_url":"https://api.orcid.org/v2.0/0000-0002-7201-4335/work/188097212","last_name":"Moorlach","first_name":"Benjamin Willem","full_name":"Moorlach, Benjamin Willem","orcid":"0000-0002-7201-4335"},{"last_name":"Jakobs-Schönwandt","first_name":"Desiree","full_name":"Jakobs-Schönwandt, Desiree"},{"id":"201870","last_name":"Patel","first_name":"Anant","full_name":"Patel, Anant"},{"last_name":"Pastacaldi","first_name":"Chiara","full_name":"Pastacaldi, Chiara"},{"first_name":"Stefan","last_name":"Jacob","full_name":"Jacob, Stefan"},{"last_name":"Sede","first_name":"Ana R.","full_name":"Sede, Ana R."},{"first_name":"Manfred","last_name":"Heinlein","full_name":"Heinlein, Manfred"},{"full_name":"Poranen, Minna M.","last_name":"Poranen","first_name":"Minna M."},{"last_name":"Kogel","first_name":"Karl-Heinz","full_name":"Kogel, Karl-Heinz"},{"last_name":"Ladera Carmona","first_name":"Maria","full_name":"Ladera Carmona, Maria"}],"publication_status":"published","user_id":"220548","intvolume":"         8"}