Metabolic Phenotype Characterization of Botrytis cinerea, the Causal Agent of Gray Mold

Abstract

<i>Botrytis cinerea</i>, which causes gray mold, is an important pathogen in four important economic crops, tomato, tobacco, cucumber and strawberry, in China and worldwide. Metabolic phenomics data on <i>B. cinerea</i> isolates from these four crops were characterized and compared for 950 phenotypes with a BIOLOG Phenotype MicroArray (PM). The results showed that the metabolic fingerprints of the four <i>B. cinerea</i> isolates were similar to each other with minimal differences. <i>B. cinerea</i> isolates all metabolized more than 17% of the tested carbon sources, 63% of the amino acid nitrogen substrates, 80% of the peptide nitrogen substrates, 93% of the phosphorus substrates, and 97% of the sulfur substrates. Carbon substrates of organic acids and carbohydrates, and nitrogen substrates of amino acids and peptides were the significant utilization patterns for <i>B. cinerea</i>. Each <i>B. cinerea</i> isolate contained 94 biosynthetic pathways. These isolates showed a large range of adaptabilities and were still able to metabolize substrates in the presence of the osmolytes, including up to 6% potassium chloride, 10% sodium chloride, 5% sodium sulfate, 6% sodium formate, 20% ethylene glycol, and 3% urea. These isolates all showed active metabolism in environments with pH values from 3.5 to 8.5 and exhibited decarboxylase activities. These characterizations provide a theoretical basis for the study of <i>B. cinerea</i> in biochemistry and metabolic phenomics and provide valuable clues to finding potential new ways to manage gray mold.