title: Calpains are involved in asexual and sexual development, cell wall integrity and pathogenicity of the rice blast fungus.
abstract: Calpains are ubiquitous and well-conserved proteins that belong to the calcium-dependent, non-lysosomal cysteine protease family. In this study, 8 putative calpains were identified using Pfam domain analysis and BlastP searches in M. oryzae. Three single gene deletion mutants (ΔMocapn7, ΔMocapn9 and ΔMocapn14) and two double gene deletion mutants (ΔMocapn4ΔMocapn7 and ΔMocapn9ΔMocapn7) were obtained using the high-throughput gene knockout system. The calpain disruption mutants showed defects in colony characteristics, conidiation, sexual reproduction and cell wall integrity. The mycelia of the ΔMocapn7, ΔMocapn4ΔMocapn7 and ΔMocapn9ΔMocapn7 mutants showed reduced pathogenicity on rice and barley.
authors: State Key Laboratory for Rice Biology, Biotechnology Institute, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, Zhejiang Province, China.
authors: Xiao-Hong
authors: XH
authors: Liu
authors: State Key Laboratory for Rice Biology, Biotechnology Institute, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, Zhejiang Province, China.
authors: Guo-Ao
authors: GA
authors: Ning
authors: State Key Laboratory for Rice Biology, Biotechnology Institute, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, Zhejiang Province, China.
authors: Lu-Yao
authors: LY
authors: Huang
authors: State Key Laboratory for Rice Biology, Biotechnology Institute, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, Zhejiang Province, China.
authors: Ya-Hui
authors: YH
authors: Zhao
authors: State Key Laboratory of Breeding Base for Zhejiang Sustainable Pest and Disease Control, Institute of Virology and Biotechnology, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou 310021, Zhejiang Province, China.
authors: Bo
authors: B
authors: Dong
authors: College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, Zhejiang Province, China.
authors: Jian-Ping
authors: JP
authors: Lu
authors: State Key Laboratory for Rice Biology, Biotechnology Institute, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, Zhejiang Province, China.
authors: Fu-Cheng
authors: FC
authors: Lin
mesh_terms: D002154:Calpain / Q000378:metabolism*; D002473:Cell Wall / Q000378:metabolism*; D005656:Fungal Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D017353:Gene Deletion; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015966:Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal; D001467:Hordeum / Q000382:microbiology; D020082:Magnaporthe / Q000235:genetics* / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D008957:Models, Genetic; D009154:Mutation; D025282:Mycelium / Q000378:metabolism; D012275:Oryza / Q000382:microbiology; D010935:Plant Diseases / Q000382:microbiology; D020543:Proteome; D013172:Spores, Fungal / Q000254:growth & development; D014774:Virulence / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D005656:Fungal Proteins; D020543:Proteome; D002154:Calpain