The Roles of Gti1/Pac2 Family Proteins in Fungal Growth, Morphogenesis, Stress Response, and Pathogenicity

Abstract

Gti1/Pac2 is a fungal-specific transcription factor family with a stable and conserved N-terminal domain. Generally, there are two members in this family, named Gti1/Wor1/Rpy1/Mit1/Reg1/Ros1/Sge1 and Pac2, which are involved in fungal growth, development, stress response, spore production, pathogenicity, and so on. The Gti1/Pac2 family proteins share some conserved and distinct functions. For example, in Schizosaccharomyces pombe, Gti1 promotes the initiation of gluconate uptake during glucose starvation, while Pac2 controls the onset of sexual development in a pathway independent of the cAMP cascade. In the last two decades, more attention was focused on the Gti1 and its orthologs because of their significant effect on morphological switching and fungal virulence. By contrast, limited work was published on the functions of Pac2, which is required for stress responses and conidiation, but plays a minor role in fungal virulence. In this review, we present an overview of our current understanding of the Gti1/Pac2 proteins that contribute to fungal development and/or pathogenicity and of the regulation mechanisms during infection related development. Understanding the working networks of the conserved Gti1/Pac2 transcription factors in fungal pathogenicity not only advances our knowledge of the highly elaborate infection process but may also lead to the development of novel strategies for the control of plant disease. [Graphic: see text] Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.

Keywords

• Gti1/Pac2 family
• morphogenesis
• pathogenicity
• transcription factors