Dataset Information

A new identified suppressor of Cdc7p/SepH kinase, PomA, regulates fungal asexual reproduction via affecting phosphorylation of MAPK-HogA.

ABSTRACT: The septation initiation network (SIN), composed of a conserved SepH (Cdc7p) kinase cascade, plays an essential role in fungal cytokinesis/septation and conidiation for asexual reproduction, while the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway depends on successive signaling cascade phosphorylation to sense and respond to stress and environmental factors. In this study, a SepH suppressor-PomA in the filamentous fungus A. nidulans is identified as a negative regulator of septation and conidiation such that the pomA mutant is able to cure defects of sepH1 in septation and conidiation and overexpression of pomA remarkably suppresses septation. Under the normal cultural condition, SepH positively regulates the phosphorylation of MAPK-HogA, while PomA reversely affects this process. In the absence of PbsB (MAPKK, a putative upstream member of HogA), PomA and SepH are unable to affect the phosphorylation level of HogA. Under the osmostress condition, the induced phosphorylated HogA is capable of bypassing the requirement of SepH, a key player for early events during cytokinesis but not for MobA/SidB, the last one in the core SIN protein kinase cascade, indicating the osmotic stimuli-induced septation is capable of bypassing requirement of SepH but unable to bypass the whole SIN requirement. Findings demonstrate that crosstalk exists between the SIN and MAPK pathways. PomA and SepH indirectly regulate HogA phosphorylation through affecting HogA-P upstream kinases.

SUBMITTER: Zhou X

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6592577 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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A new identified suppressor of Cdc7p/SepH kinase, PomA, regulates fungal asexual reproduction via affecting phosphorylation of MAPK-HogA.

Zhou Xiaogang X Ye Jing J Zheng Likun L Jiang Ping P Lu Ling L

PLoS genetics 20190613 6

The septation initiation network (SIN), composed of a conserved SepH (Cdc7p) kinase cascade, plays an essential role in fungal cytokinesis/septation and conidiation for asexual reproduction, while the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway depends on successive signaling cascade phosphorylation to sense and respond to stress and environmental factors. In this study, a SepH suppressor-PomA in the filamentous fungus A. nidulans is identified as a negative regulator of septation and conidi ...[more]

PMID: 31194741

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Project description:Although most unicellular organisms reproduce asexually, most multicellular eukaryotes are obligately sexual. This implies that there are strong barriers that prevent the origin or maintenance of asexuality arising from an obligately sexual ancestor. By studying rare asexual animal species we can gain a better understanding of the circumstances that facilitate their evolution from a sexual ancestor. Of the known asexual animal species, many originated by hybridization between two ancestral sexual species. The balance hypothesis predicts that genetic incompatibilities between the divergent genomes in hybrids can modify meiosis and facilitate asexual reproduction, but there are few instances where this has been shown. Here we report that hybridizing two sexual Caenorhabditis nematode species (C. nouraguensis females and C. becei males) alters the normal inheritance of the maternal and paternal genomes during the formation of hybrid zygotes. Most offspring of this interspecies cross die during embryogenesis, exhibiting inheritance of a diploid C. nouraguensis maternal genome and incomplete inheritance of C. becei paternal DNA. However, a small fraction of offspring develop into viable adults that can be either fertile or sterile. Fertile offspring are produced asexually by sperm-dependent parthenogenesis (also called gynogenesis or pseudogamy); these progeny inherit a diploid maternal genome but fail to inherit a paternal genome. Sterile offspring are hybrids that inherit both a diploid maternal genome and a haploid paternal genome. Whole-genome sequencing of individual viable worms shows that diploid maternal inheritance in both fertile and sterile offspring results from an altered meiosis in C. nouraguensis oocytes and the inheritance of two randomly selected homologous chromatids. We hypothesize that hybrid incompatibility between C. nouraguensis and C. becei modifies maternal and paternal genome inheritance and indirectly induces gynogenetic reproduction. This system can be used to dissect the molecular mechanisms by which hybrid incompatibilities can facilitate the emergence of asexual reproduction.

Project description:BackgroundThe ability of fungal cells to undergo cell-to-cell communication and anastomosis, the process of vegetative hyphal fusion, allows them to maximize their overall fitness. Previous studies in a number of fungal species have identified the requirement of several signaling pathways for anastomosis, including the so far best characterized soft (So) gene, and the MAPK pathway components MAK-1 and MAK-2 of Neurospora crassa. Despite the observations of hyphal fusions' involvement in pathogenicity and host adhesion, the connection between cell fusion and fungal lifestyles is still unclear. Here, we address the role of anastomosis in fungal development and asexual reproduction in Zymoseptoria tritici, the most important fungal pathogen of wheat in Europe.ResultsWe show that Z. tritici undergoes self-fusion between distinct cellular structures, and its mechanism is dependent on the initial cell density. Contrary to other fungi, cell fusion in Z. tritici only resulted in cytoplasmic mixing but not in multinucleated cell formation. The deletion of the So orthologous ZtSof1 disrupted cell-to-cell communication affecting both hyphal and germling fusion. We show that Z. tritici mutants for MAPK-encoding ZtSlt2 (orthologous to MAK-1) and ZtFus3 (orthologous to MAK-2) genes also failed to undergo anastomosis, demonstrating the functional conservation of this signaling mechanism across species. Additionally, the ΔZtSof1 mutant was severely impaired in melanization, suggesting that the So gene function is related to melanization. Finally, we demonstrated that anastomosis is dispensable for pathogenicity, but essential for the pycnidium development, and its absence abolishes the asexual reproduction of Z. tritici.ConclusionsWe demonstrate the role for ZtSof1, ZtSlt2, and ZtFus3 in cell fusions of Z. tritici. Cell fusions are essential for different aspects of the Z. tritici biology, and the ZtSof1 gene is a potential target to control septoria tritici blotch (STB) disease.

Dataset Information

A new identified suppressor of Cdc7p/SepH kinase, PomA, regulates fungal asexual reproduction via affecting phosphorylation of MAPK-HogA.

Publications

A new identified suppressor of Cdc7p/SepH kinase, PomA, regulates fungal asexual reproduction via affecting phosphorylation of MAPK-HogA.

Similar Datasets

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