Protein structure determination and evaluation of gene expression level of Tup1 from Zymoseptoria tritic

Abstract

Introduction: Zymoseptoria tritici is a dimorphic pathogenic fungus in which switching growth pattern plays a crucial role in diseases development. Therefore, Tup1 protein, the global transcriptional repressor which is a well-known regulator of dimorphism might be a qualified candidate for preliminary study in the pathogen. Materials and methods: Using Saccharomyces cerevisiae Tup1p as a model, the functional domains of the protein were plotted using InterPro software. Then Zt.Tup1p tertiary structure were represented by accelrys DS visualize software. Finally, the in vitro and in vivo levels of expression of Zt.Tup were evaluated by real Time RT-PCR.Results: Zt.Tup1p included public structures available in the other Tup1-like eukaryotic proteins, with an N-terminal domain, a poorly conserved middle region and a C-terminal domain with seven WD repeats. Also, the results showed that the two glutamine-rich elements (Q1 and Q2) contrary to which was identified in the S. cerevisiae, do not exist in Zt.Tup1p structure. The results were indicated that the expression level of Zt.tup1 up-regulate during mycelial stage. In addition, Zt.Tup1p was partly up-regulated in 14 and 24th post-inoculation. Discussion and conclusion: The presence of seven conserved WD repeats in C terminal domain of Zt.Tup1p and the other related fungi indicates that these functional domains play an important role in the life of these microorganisms. According to the data of the present study, the up-regulation of Zt.tup1 gene during mycelial stage suggests that it may play a major role in mycelium development than in conidia formation. Furthermore, it’s up-regulation during necrotrophy which are characterized by the development of pycnidia shows that the gene may play a key role in the growth and pathogenicity of Z. tritici. The present study can be considered as promising new leads for starting a new comprehensive survey for clarifying this gene detailed functions during the development and pathogenicity.

Keywords

• expression level
• pathogenicity
• tup1
• wd repeats
• zymoseptoria tritici