title: Structure-Activity Relationship of α Mating Pheromone from the Fungal PathogenFusarium oxysporum.
abstract: During sexual development ascomycete fungi produce two types of peptide pheromones termed a and α. The α pheromone from the budding yeastSaccharomyces cerevisiae, a 13-residue peptide that elicits cell cycle arrest and chemotropic growth, has served as paradigm for the interaction of small peptides with their cognate G protein-coupled receptors. However, no structural information is currently available for α pheromones from filamentous ascomycetes, which are significantly shorter and share almost no sequence similarity with theS. cerevisiaehomolog. High resolution structure of synthetic α-pheromone from the plant pathogenic ascomyceteFusarium oxysporumrevealed the presence of a central β-turn resembling that of its yeast counterpart. Disruption of the-fold by d-alanine substitution of the conserved central Gly6-Gln7residues or by random sequence scrambling demonstrated a crucial role for this structural determinant in chemoattractant activity. Unexpectedly, the growth inhibitory effect ofF. oxysporumα-pheromone was independent of the cognate G protein-coupled receptors Ste2 and of the central β-turn but instead required two conserved Trp1-Cys2residues at the N terminus. These results indicate that, despite their reduced size, fungal α-pheromones contain discrete functional regions with a defined secondary structure that regulate diverse biological processes such as polarity reorientation and cell division.
authors.affiliation: From the Department of Genetics, Campus de Excelencia Internacional Agroalimentario ceiA3, Universidad de Córdoba, 14071 Córdoba, Spain.
authors.forename: Stefania
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vitale
authors.affiliation: the Department of Biological Physical Chemistry, Institute of Physical Chemistry Rocasolano, CSIC, Serrano 119, 28006 Madrid, Spain, and.
authors.forename: Angélica
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Partida-Hanon
authors.affiliation: the Department of Biological Physical Chemistry, Institute of Physical Chemistry Rocasolano, CSIC, Serrano 119, 28006 Madrid, Spain, and.
authors.forename: Soraya
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Serrano
authors.affiliation: the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology I, Faculty of Chemistry, Complutense University, 28040 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Álvaro
authors.initials: Á
authors.lastname: Martínez-Del-Pozo
authors.affiliation: From the Department of Genetics, Campus de Excelencia Internacional Agroalimentario ceiA3, Universidad de Córdoba, 14071 Córdoba, Spain.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Di Pietro
authors.affiliation: From the Department of Genetics, Campus de Excelencia Internacional Agroalimentario ceiA3, Universidad de Córdoba, 14071 Córdoba, Spain, ge3tutud@uco.es.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Turrà
authors.affiliation: the Department of Biological Physical Chemistry, Institute of Physical Chemistry Rocasolano, CSIC, Serrano 119, 28006 Madrid, Spain, and mbruix@iqfr.csic.es.
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bruix
mesh_terms: D002453:Cell Cycle; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000378:metabolism; D002630:Chemotactic Factors / Q000737:chemistry*; D003545:Cysteine / Q000737:chemistry; D005656:Fungal Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D005670:Fusarium / Q000737:chemistry*; D049770:Genes, Mating Type, Fungal; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry; D010675:Pheromones / Q000737:chemistry*; D000072417:Protein Domains; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary; D043562:Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled / Q000378:metabolism; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000737:chemistry; D015398:Signal Transduction; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship; D014364:Tryptophan / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D002630:Chemotactic Factors; D005656:Fungal Proteins; D010455:Peptides; D010675:Pheromones; D043562:Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled; D014364:Tryptophan; D003545:Cysteine
keywords: Fusarium oxysporum; G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR); cell division; chemotropism; fungi; hyphal growth inhibition; peptides; pheromone