MoPex19, which is essential for maintenance of peroxisomal structure and woronin bodies, is required for metabolism and development in the rice blast fungus.
Peroxisomes are present ubiquitously and make important contributions to cellular metabolism in eukaryotes. They play crucial roles in pathogenicity of plant fungal pathogens. The peroxisomal matrix proteins and peroxisomal membrane proteins (PMPs) are synthesized in the cytosol and imported post-translationally. Although the peroxisomal import machineries are generally conserved, some species-specific features were found in different types of organisms. In phytopathogenic fungi, the pathways of the matrix proteins have been elucidated, while the import machinery of PMPs remains obscure. Here, we report that MoPEX19, an ortholog of ScPEX19, was required for PMPs import and peroxisomal maintenance, and played crucial roles in metabolism and pathogenicity of the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae. MoPEX19 was expressed in a low level and Mopex19p was distributed in the cytoplasm and newly formed peroxisomes. MoPEX19 deletion led to mislocalization of peroxisomal membrane proteins (PMPs), as well peroxisomal matrix proteins. Peroxisomal structures were totally absent in Δmopex19 mutants and woronin bodies also vanished. Δmopex19 exhibited metabolic deficiency typical in peroxisomal disorders and also abnormality in glyoxylate cycle which was undetected in the known mopex mutants. The Δmopex19 mutants performed multiple disorders in fungal development and pathogenicity-related morphogenesis, and lost completely the pathogenicity on its hosts. These data demonstrate that MoPEX19 plays crucial roles in maintenance of peroxisomal and peroxisome-derived structures and makes more contributions to fungal development and pathogenicity than the known MoPEX genes in the rice blast fungus.
Department of Plant Pathology, College of Plant Protection, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China ; State Key Laboratory Breeding Base for Zhejiang Sustainable Pest and Disease Control, Institute of Plant Protection Microbiology, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou, China.
Ling
L
Li
State Key Laboratory Breeding Base for Zhejiang Sustainable Pest and Disease Control, Institute of Plant Protection Microbiology, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou, China.
Jiaoyu
J
Wang
State Key Laboratory Breeding Base for Zhejiang Sustainable Pest and Disease Control, Institute of Plant Protection Microbiology, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou, China.
Zhen
Z
Zhang
State Key Laboratory Breeding Base for Zhejiang Sustainable Pest and Disease Control, Institute of Plant Protection Microbiology, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou, China.
Yanli
Y
Wang
Department of Plant Pathology, College of Plant Protection, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China ; State Key Laboratory Breeding Base for Zhejiang Sustainable Pest and Disease Control, Institute of Plant Protection Microbiology, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou, China.
Maoxin
M
Liu
State Key Laboratory Breeding Base for Zhejiang Sustainable Pest and Disease Control, Institute of Plant Protection Microbiology, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou, China.
Hua
H
Jiang
State Key Laboratory Breeding Base for Zhejiang Sustainable Pest and Disease Control, Institute of Plant Protection Microbiology, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou, China.
Rongyao
R
Chai
State Key Laboratory Breeding Base for Zhejiang Sustainable Pest and Disease Control, Institute of Plant Protection Microbiology, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou, China.
Xueqin
X
Mao
State Key Laboratory Breeding Base for Zhejiang Sustainable Pest and Disease Control, Institute of Plant Protection Microbiology, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou, China.
Haiping
H
Qiu
Department of Plant Pathology, College of Plant Protection, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China.
Fengquan
F
Liu
State Key Laboratory Breeding Base for Zhejiang Sustainable Pest and Disease Control, Institute of Plant Protection Microbiology, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou, China.
Guochang
G
Sun
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D002473:Cell Wall / Q000378:metabolism; D003593:Cytoplasm / Q000378:metabolism; D005656:Fungal Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D025301:Hyphae / Q000166:cytology / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism; D020082:Magnaporthe / Q000166:cytology / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000172:deficiency / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012275:Oryza / Q000382:microbiology*; D020675:Peroxisomes / Q000378:metabolism*; D017384:Sequence Deletion; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D013172:Spores, Fungal / Q000166:cytology / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism
D005656:Fungal Proteins; D008565:Membrane Proteins