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Because effective control measures are lacking, tea leaf spot caused by Didymella segeticola results in huge tea (Camellia sinensis) production losses on tea plantations in Guizhou Province, southwestern China. Screening for natural antimicrobial agents with higher control effects against this pathogen and studying their modes of action may contribute to disease management. Here, Penicillium griseofulvum-derived antimicrobial griseofulvin (GSF) can inhibit the hyphal growth of D. segeticola strain GZSQ-4, with a half-maximal effective concentration of 0.37 μg/ml in vitro and a higher curative efficacy at a lower dose of 25 μg/ml for detached tea twigs. GSF induces deformed and slightly curly hyphae with enlarged ends, with protoplasts agglutinated in the hyphae, and higher numbers of hyphal protuberances. GSF alters hyphal morphology and the subcellular structure's order. The integrated transcriptome and proteome data revealed that the transport of materials in cells, cellular movement, and mitosis were modulated by GSF. Molecular docking indicated that beta-tubulin was the most potent target of GSF, with a binding free energy of −13.59 kcal/mol, and microscale thermophoresis indicated that the dissociation constant (Kd) value of GSF binding to beta-tubulin 1, compared with beta-tubulin 2, was significantly lower. Thus, GSF potentially targets beta-tubulin 1 to disturb the chromosomal separation and fungal mitosis, thereby inhibiting hyphal growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lasiodiplodia theobromae is a phytopathogenic fungus, which can cause many different diseases on different crops. The pathogen can cause leaf spot on tea plants (Camellia sinensis), which negatively affects the productivity and quality of tea leaves in tea plantations in Guizhou Province, China. Although the genome sequence of L. theobromae has been published, no data on the transcriptome or small RNA sequences of L. theobromae under in vitro conditions and the course of infection of tea leaf are available. Here, we report the high-quality transcriptome and small RNA sequences of L. theobromae in vitro conditions and the course of infection of tea leaf using the platform of Illumina HiSeq. This comprehensive expression profiling of the fungal pathogen will provide a valuable resource for future research on trait-specific genes of the pathogen, host-pathogen interactions, and disease resistance in the host. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]