Dataset Information

Glycogen metabolic genes are involved in trehalose-6-phosphate synthase-mediated regulation of pathogenicity by the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae.

ABSTRACT: The filamentous fungus Magnaporthe oryzae is the causal agent of rice blast disease. Here we show that glycogen metabolic genes play an important role in plant infection by M. oryzae. Targeted deletion of AGL1 and GPH1, which encode amyloglucosidase and glycogen phosphorylase, respectively, prevented mobilisation of glycogen stores during appressorium development and caused a significant reduction in the ability of M. oryzae to cause rice blast disease. By contrast, targeted mutation of GSN1, which encodes glycogen synthase, significantly reduced the synthesis of intracellular glycogen, but had no effect on fungal pathogenicity. We found that loss of AGL1 and GPH1 led to a reduction in expression of TPS1 and TPS3, which encode components of the trehalose-6-phosphate synthase complex, that acts as a genetic switch in M. oryzae. Tps1 responds to glucose-6-phosphate levels and the balance of NADP/NADPH to regulate virulence-associated gene expression, in association with Nmr transcriptional inhibitors. We show that deletion of the NMR3 transcriptional inhibitor gene partially restores virulence to a ?agl1?gph1 mutant, suggesting that glycogen metabolic genes are necessary for operation of the NADPH-dependent genetic switch in M. oryzae.

SUBMITTER: Badaruddin M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3789717 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Glycogen metabolic genes are involved in trehalose-6-phosphate synthase-mediated regulation of pathogenicity by the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae.

Badaruddin Muhammad M Holcombe Lucy J LJ Wilson Richard A RA Wang Zheng-Yi ZY Kershaw Michael J MJ Talbot Nicholas J NJ

PLoS pathogens 20131003 10

The filamentous fungus Magnaporthe oryzae is the causal agent of rice blast disease. Here we show that glycogen metabolic genes play an important role in plant infection by M. oryzae. Targeted deletion of AGL1 and GPH1, which encode amyloglucosidase and glycogen phosphorylase, respectively, prevented mobilisation of glycogen stores during appressorium development and caused a significant reduction in the ability of M. oryzae to cause rice blast disease. By contrast, targeted mutation of GSN1, wh ...[more]

PMID: 24098112

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Project description:Rice blast disease caused by Magnaporthe oryzae is a devastating disease of cultivated rice worldwide. Infections by this fungus lead to a significant reduction in rice yields and threats to food security. To gain better insight into growth and cell death in M. oryzae during infection, we characterized two predicted M. oryzae metacaspase proteins, MoMca1 and MoMca2. These proteins appear to be functionally redundant and can complement the yeast Yca1 homologue. Biochemical analysis revealed that M. oryzae metacaspases exhibited Ca2+-dependent caspase activity in vitro Deletion of both MoMca1 and MoMca2 in M. oryzae resulted in reduced sporulation, delay in conidial germination, and attenuation of disease severity. In addition, the double ΔMomca1mca2 mutant strain showed increased radial growth in the presence of oxidative stress. Interestingly, the ΔMomca1mca2 strain showed an increased accumulation of insoluble aggregates compared to the wild-type strain during vegetative growth. Our findings suggest that MoMca1 and MoMca2 promote the clearance of insoluble aggregates in M. oryzae, demonstrating the important role these metacaspases have in fungal protein homeostasis. Furthermore, these metacaspase proteins may play additional roles, like in regulating stress responses, that would help maintain the fitness of fungal cells required for host infection.IMPORTANCEMagnaporthe oryzae causes rice blast disease that threatens global food security by resulting in the severe loss of rice production every year. A tightly regulated life cycle allows M. oryzae to disarm the host plant immune system during its biotrophic stage before triggering plant cell death in its necrotrophic stage. The ways M. oryzae navigates its complex life cycle remain unclear. This work characterizes two metacaspase proteins with peptidase activity in M. oryzae that are shown to be involved in the regulation of fungal growth and development prior to infection by potentially helping maintain fungal fitness. This study provides new insights into the role of metacaspase proteins in filamentous fungi by illustrating the delays in M. oryzae morphogenesis in the absence of these proteins. Understanding the mechanisms by which M. oryzae morphology and development promote its devastating pathogenicity may lead to the emergence of proper methods for disease control.

Project description:BackgroundMagnaporthe oryzae, the causal agent of blast disease of rice, is the most destructive disease of rice worldwide. The genome of this fungal pathogen has been sequenced and an automated annotation has recently been updated to Version 6 http://www.broad.mit.edu/annotation/genome/magnaporthe_grisea/MultiDownloads.html. However, a comprehensive manual curation remains to be performed. Gene Ontology (GO) annotation is a valuable means of assigning functional information using standardized vocabulary. We report an overview of the GO annotation for Version 5 of M. oryzae genome assembly.MethodsA similarity-based (i.e., computational) GO annotation with manual review was conducted, which was then integrated with a literature-based GO annotation with computational assistance. For similarity-based GO annotation a stringent reciprocal best hits method was used to identify similarity between predicted proteins of M. oryzae and GO proteins from multiple organisms with published associations to GO terms. Significant alignment pairs were manually reviewed. Functional assignments were further cross-validated with manually reviewed data, conserved domains, or data determined by wet lab experiments. Additionally, biological appropriateness of the functional assignments was manually checked.ResultsIn total, 6,286 proteins received GO term assignment via the homology-based annotation, including 2,870 hypothetical proteins. Literature-based experimental evidence, such as microarray, MPSS, T-DNA insertion mutation, or gene knockout mutation, resulted in 2,810 proteins being annotated with GO terms. Of these, 1,673 proteins were annotated with new terms developed for Plant-Associated Microbe Gene Ontology (PAMGO). In addition, 67 experiment-determined secreted proteins were annotated with PAMGO terms. Integration of the two data sets resulted in 7,412 proteins (57%) being annotated with 1,957 distinct and specific GO terms. Unannotated proteins were assigned to the 3 root terms. The Version 5 GO annotation is publically queryable via the GO site http://amigo.geneontology.org/cgi-bin/amigo/go.cgi. Additionally, the genome of M. oryzae is constantly being refined and updated as new information is incorporated. For the latest GO annotation of Version 6 genome, please visit our website http://scotland.fgl.ncsu.edu/smeng/GoAnnotationMagnaporthegrisea.html. The preliminary GO annotation of Version 6 genome is placed at a local MySql database that is publically queryable via a user-friendly interface Adhoc Query System.ConclusionOur analysis provides comprehensive and robust GO annotations of the M. oryzae genome assemblies that will be solid foundations for further functional interrogation of M. oryzae.

Project description:As the causal agent of the blast disease, Magnaporthe oryzae is one of the most destructive fungal pathogens of rice. Histone acetylation/deacetylation is important for remodeling of chromatin superstructure and thus altering gene expression. In this study, two genes encoding histone deacetylases, namely, MoRPD3 and MoHST4, were identified and functionally characterized in M. oryzae. MoHst4 was required for proper mycelial growth and pathogenicity, whereas overproduction of MoRpd3 led to loss of pathogenicity, likely due to a block in conidial cell death and restricted invasive growth within the host plants. Green fluorescent protein (GFP)-MoRpd3 localized to the nucleus and cytoplasm in vegetative hyphae and developing conidia. By comparative transcriptomics analysis, we identified potential target genes epigenetically regulated by histone deacetylases (HDACs) containing MoRpd3 or MoHst4, which may contribute to conidia formation and/or conidial cell death, which is a prerequisite for successful appressorium-mediated host invasion. Taken together, our results suggest that histone deacetylases MoRpd3 and MoHst4 differentially regulate mycelial growth, asexual development, and pathogenesis in M. oryzae. IMPORTANCE HDACs (histone deacetylases) regulate various aspects of growth, development, and pathogenesis in plant-pathogenic fungi. Most members of HDAC classes I to III have been functionally characterized, except for orthologous Rpd3 and Hst4, in the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae. In this study, we assessed the function of MoRpd3 and MoHst4 by reverse genetics and found that they differentially regulate M. oryzae vegetative growth, asexual development, and infection. Particularly, MoRpd3 negatively regulates M. oryzae pathogenicity, likely through suppression of conidial cell death, which we recently reported as being critical for appressorium maturation and functioning. Overall, this study broadens our understanding of fungal pathobiology and its critical regulation by histone modification(s) during cell death and in planta differentiation.

Dataset Information

Glycogen metabolic genes are involved in trehalose-6-phosphate synthase-mediated regulation of pathogenicity by the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae.

Publications

Glycogen metabolic genes are involved in trehalose-6-phosphate synthase-mediated regulation of pathogenicity by the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae.

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