The autophagy-related proteins FvAtg4 and FvAtg8 are involved in virulence and fumonisin biosynthesis in Fusarium verticillioides
Yujie Wang,
Xin Liu,
Yujiao Xu,
Yiying Gu,
Xinyue Zhang,
Mengxuan Zhang,
Wen Wen,
Yin-Won Lee,
Jianrong Shi,
Sherif Ramzy Mohamed,
Amira A. Goda,
Huijun Wu,
Xuewen Gao,
Qin Gu
Affiliations
Yujie Wang
Department of Plant Pathology, College of Plant Protection, Nanjing Agricultural University/Key Laboratory of Monitoring and Management of Crop Diseases and Pest Insects, Ministry of Education, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
Xin Liu
Safety and Quality, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs/Key Laboratory for Agro-product Safety Risk Evaluation (Nanjing), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs/Collaborative Innovation Center for Modern Grain Circulation and Safety/Institute of Food Safety and Nutrition, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural SciencesJiangsu Key Laboratory for Food Quality and Safety-State Key Laboratory Cultivation Base, Ministry of Science and Technology/Key Laboratory for Control Technology and Standard for Agro-product, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
Yujiao Xu
Department of Plant Pathology, College of Plant Protection, Nanjing Agricultural University/Key Laboratory of Monitoring and Management of Crop Diseases and Pest Insects, Ministry of Education, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
Yiying Gu
Department of Plant Pathology, College of Plant Protection, Nanjing Agricultural University/Key Laboratory of Monitoring and Management of Crop Diseases and Pest Insects, Ministry of Education, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
Xinyue Zhang
Department of Plant Pathology, College of Plant Protection, Nanjing Agricultural University/Key Laboratory of Monitoring and Management of Crop Diseases and Pest Insects, Ministry of Education, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
Mengxuan Zhang
Department of Plant Pathology, College of Plant Protection, Nanjing Agricultural University/Key Laboratory of Monitoring and Management of Crop Diseases and Pest Insects, Ministry of Education, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
Wen Wen
Department of Plant Pathology, College of Plant Protection, Nanjing Agricultural University/Key Laboratory of Monitoring and Management of Crop Diseases and Pest Insects, Ministry of Education, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
Yin-Won Lee
School of Agricultural Biotechnology, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
Jianrong Shi
Safety and Quality, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs/Key Laboratory for Agro-product Safety Risk Evaluation (Nanjing), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs/Collaborative Innovation Center for Modern Grain Circulation and Safety/Institute of Food Safety and Nutrition, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural SciencesJiangsu Key Laboratory for Food Quality and Safety-State Key Laboratory Cultivation Base, Ministry of Science and Technology/Key Laboratory for Control Technology and Standard for Agro-product, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
Sherif Ramzy Mohamed
Food Toxicology and Contaminants Department, National Research Centre, Giza, Egypt
Amira A. Goda
Food Toxicology and Contaminants Department, National Research Centre, Giza, Egypt
Huijun Wu
Department of Plant Pathology, College of Plant Protection, Nanjing Agricultural University/Key Laboratory of Monitoring and Management of Crop Diseases and Pest Insects, Ministry of Education, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
Xuewen Gao
Department of Plant Pathology, College of Plant Protection, Nanjing Agricultural University/Key Laboratory of Monitoring and Management of Crop Diseases and Pest Insects, Ministry of Education, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
Qin Gu
Department of Plant Pathology, College of Plant Protection, Nanjing Agricultural University/Key Laboratory of Monitoring and Management of Crop Diseases and Pest Insects, Ministry of Education, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
Autophagy is the main intracellular degradation system by which cytoplasmic materials are transported to and degraded in the vacuole/lysosome of eukaryotic cells, and it also controls cellular differentiation and virulence in a variety of filamentous fungi. However, the contribution of the autophagic pathway to fungal development and pathogenicity in the important maize pathogen and mycotoxigenic fungus Fusarium verticillioides is still unknown. In this study, we characterized two autophagy-related proteins, FvAtg4 and FvAtg8. The F. verticillioides deletion mutants ΔFvAtg4 and ΔFvAtg8 were impaired in autophagosome formation, aerial hyphal formation, sexual growth, lipid turnover, pigmentation and fungal virulence. Interestingly, ΔFvAtg4 and ΔFvAtg8 were defective in fumonisin B1 (FB1) synthesis, which may have resulted from decreased intracellular levels of alanine in the mutants. Our results indicate that FvAtg4 and FvAtg8 contribute to F. verticillioides pathogenicity by regulating the autophagic pathway to control lipid turnover, fumonisin biosynthesis, and pigmentation during its infectious cycle.
