The Farnesyltransferase ?-Subunit Ram1 Regulates Sporisorium scitamineum Mating, Pathogenicity and Cell Wall Integrity.
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ABSTRACT: The basidiomycetous fungus Sporisorium scitamineum causes a serious sugarcane smut disease in major sugarcane growing areas. Sexual mating is essential for infection to the host; however, its underlying molecular mechanism has not been fully studied. In this study, we identified a conserved farnesyltransferase (FTase) ? subunit Ram1 in S. scitamineum. The ram1? mutant displayed significantly reduced mating/filamentation, thus of weak pathogenicity to the host cane. The ram1? mutant sporidia showed more tolerant toward cell wall stressor Congo red compared to that of the wild-type. Transcriptional profiling showed that Congo red treatment resulted in notable up-regulation of the core genes involving in cell wall integrity pathway in ram1? sporidia compared with that of WT, indicating that Ram1 may be involved in cell wall integrity regulation. In yeast the heterodimeric FTase is responsible for post-translational modification of Ras (small G protein) and a-factor (pheromone). We also identified and characterized two conserved Ras proteins, Ras1 and Ras2, respectively, and a MAT-1 pheromone precursor Mfa1. The ras1?, ras2? and mfa1? mutants all displayed reduced mating/filamentation similar as the ram1? mutant. However, both ras1? and ras2? mutants were hypersensitive to Congo red while the mfa1? mutant was the same as wild-type. Overall our study displayed that RAM1 plays an essential role in S. scitamineum mating/filamentation, pathogenicity, and cell wall stability.
SUBMITTER: Sun S
PROVIDER: S-EPMC6517510 | biostudies-literature | 2019
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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