The Cyclase-Associated Protein Cap1 Is Important for Proper Regulation of Infection-Related Morphogenesis in Magnaporthe oryzae

PLoS Pathogens

Xiaoying Zhou¹  Haifeng Zhang¹  Guotian Li¹  Jin-Rong Xu²  Brian Shaw³ 

[1] Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, United States of America;Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, United States of America;Purdue-NWAFU Joint Research Center, College of Plant Protection, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shanxi, China

关键词: Appressoria;    Saccharomyces cerevisiae;    Adenylyl cyclase;    Actins;    Rice blast fungus;    Yeast;    Leaves;    cAMP signaling cascade;   

DOI  :  10.1371/journal.ppat.1002911

学科分类：生物科学（综合）

来源: Public Library of Science

【 摘 要 】

Surface recognition and penetration are critical steps in the infection cycle of many plant pathogenic fungi. In Magnaporthe oryzae, cAMP signaling is involved in surface recognition and pathogenesis. Deletion of the MAC1 adenylate cyclase gene affected appressorium formation and plant infection. In this study, we used the affinity purification approach to identify proteins that are associated with Mac1 in vivo. One of the Mac1-interacting proteins is the adenylate cyclase-associated protein named Cap1. CAP genes are well-conserved in phytopathogenic fungi but none of them have been functionally characterized. Deletion of CAP1 blocked the effects of a dominant RAS2 allele and resulted in defects in invasive growth and a reduced intracellular cAMP level. The Δcap1 mutant was defective in germ tube growth, appressorium formation, and formation of typical blast lesions. Cap1-GFP had an actin-like localization pattern, localizing to the apical regions in vegetative hyphae, at the periphery of developing appressoria, and in circular structures at the base of mature appressoria. Interestingly, Cap1, similar to LifeAct, did not localize to the apical regions in invasive hyphae, suggesting that the apical actin cytoskeleton differs between vegetative and invasive hyphae. Domain deletion analysis indicated that the proline-rich region P2 but not the actin-binding domain (AB) of Cap1 was responsible for its subcellular localization. Nevertheless, the AB domain of Cap1 must be important for its function because CAP1ΔAB only partially rescued the Δcap1 mutant. Furthermore, exogenous cAMP induced the formation of appressorium-like structures in non-germinated conidia in CAP1ΔAB transformants. This novel observation suggested that AB domain deletion may result in overstimulation of appressorium formation by cAMP treatment. Overall, our results indicated that CAP1 is important for the activation of adenylate cyclase, appressorium morphogenesis, and plant infection in M. oryzae. CAP1 may also play a role in feedback inhibition of Ras2 signaling when Pmk1 is activated.

【 授权许可】

CC BY