Abstract
Fusarium graminearum is a destructive fungal pathogen and a major cause of Fusarium head blight (FHB) which results in severe grain yield losses and quality reduction. Additionally, the pathogen produces mycotoxins during plant infection, which are harmful to the health of humans and livestock. As it is well known that lysine acetyltransferase complexes play important roles in pathogenesis, the roles of the Eaf6 homolog-containing complex have not been reported in fungal pathogen. In this study, a Eaf6 homolog FgEaf6 was identified in F. graminearum. To investigate the functions of FgEaf6, the gene was deleted using the split-marker method. ΔFgEaf6 mutant exhibited manifold defects in hyphal growth, conidial septation, asexual and sexual reproduction. Moreover, the virulence of the ΔFgEaf6 mutant was drastically reduced in both wheat heads and wheat coleoptiles. However, the FgEaf6 gene deletion did not impact DON production. An FgEaf6–gfp fusion localized to the nucleus and a conserved coiled-coil (C–C) domain was predicted in the sequence. Mutants with deletions in the C–C domain displayed similar defects during development and virulence as observed in the ΔFgEaf6 mutant. Moreover, the truncated gene was cytoplasm localized. In conclusion, the FgEaf6 encodes a nuclear protein, which plays key regulatory roles in hyphal growth, conidial septation, asexual/sexual reproduction, and the virulence of F. graminearum. The C–C is an indispensable domain in the gene. This is the first report on Eaf6 homolog functioning in virulence of fungal pathogen.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allard S, Utley RT, Savard J, Clarke A, Grant P, Brandl CJ, Pillus L, Workman JL, Cote J (1999) NuA4, an essential transcription adaptor/histone H4 acetyltransferase complex containing Esa1p and the ATM-related cofactor Tra1p. EMBO J 18:51085119
Bennett JW, Klich M (2003) Mycotoxins. Clin Microbiol Rev 16:497–516
Bluhm BH, Zhao X, Flaherty JE, Xu JR, Dunkle L (2007) RAS2 regulates growth and pathogenesis in Fusarium graminearum. Mol Plant Microb Interact 20:627–636
Boudreault AA, Cronier D, Selleck W, Lacoste N, Utley RT, Allard S, Savard J, Lane WS, Tan S, Cote J (2003) Yeast enhancer of polycomb defines global Esa1-dependent acetylation of chromatin. Gene Dev 17:1415–1428
Cánovas D, Marcos AT, Gacek A, Ramos MS, Gutiamosk G, Reyes-Domyesmos Y, Strauss J (2014) The histone acetyltransferase gene (gcn5) plays a central role in the regulation of Aspergillus asexual development. Genetics 197(4):1175–1189
Cao S, He Y, Hao C, Xu Y, Zhang H, Wang C, Liu H, Xu JR (2017) RNA editing of the AMD1 gene is important for ascus maturation and ascospore discharge in Fusarium graminearum. Sci Rep 4617
Catlett NL, Lee B, Yoder OC, Turgeon BG (2003) Split-marker recombination for efficient targeted deletion of fungal genes. Fungal Genet Newsl 50:9–11
Cavinder B, Sikhakolli U, Fellows KM, Trail F (2012) Sexual development and ascospore discharge in Fusarium graminearum. J Vis Exp 61:e3895
Chen CJ, Yu JJ, Bi CW, Zhang YN, Xu JQ, Wang JX, Zhou MG (2009) Mutations in a beta-tubulin confer resistance of Gibberella zeae to benzimidazole fungicides. Phytopatho 99(12):1403–1411
Chen A, Xie Q, Lin Y, Xu H, Shang W, Zhang J, Zhang D, Zheng W, Li G, Wang Z (2016) Septins are involved in nuclear division, morphogenesis and pathogenicity in Fusarium graminearum. Fungal Genet Biol 94:79–87
Chen Y, Wang J, Yang N, Wen Z, Sun X, Chai Y, Ma Z (2018) Wheat microbiome bacteria can reduce virulence of a plant pathogenic fungus by altering histone acetylation. Nat Commnun 9:3429
Chen L, Tong Q, Zhang C, Ding K (2019) The transcription factor FgCrz1A is essential for fungal development, virulence, deoxynivalenol biosynthesis and stress responses in Fusarium graminearum. Curr Genet 65:153. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00294-018-0853-5
Dichtl K, Helmschrott C, Dirr F, Wagener J (2012) Deciphering CWI signalling in Aspergillus fumigatus: identification and functional characterization of cell wall stress sensors and relevant rho GTPases. Mol Microbiol 83(3):506–519
Ding SL, Mehrabi R, Koten C, Kang ZS, Wei YD, Seong KY, Kistler HC, Xu JR (2009) Transducin beta-like gene FTL1 is essential for pathogenesis in Fusarium graminearum. Eukaryot Cell 8:867–876
Doyon Y, Cote J (2004) The highly conserved and multifunctional NuA4 HAT complex. Curr Opin Genet Dev 14:147–154
Gale LR, Ward TJ, Balmas V, Kistler HC (2007) Population subdivision of Fusarium graminearum sensu stricto in the upper Midwestern United States. Phytopathology 97:1434–1439
Gardiner DM, Kazan K, Manners JM (2009) Novel genes of Fusarium graminearum that negatively regulate deoxynivalenol production and virulence. Mol Plant–Microbe Interact 22:1588–1600
Gomes CJ, Harman MW, Centuori SM, Wolgemuth CW, Martinez JD (2018) Measuring DNA content in live cells by fluorescence microscopy. Cell Div 13:6
Gonzalez-Prieto JM, Rosas-Quijano R, Dominguez A, Ruiz-Herrera J (2014) The UmGcn5 gene encoding histone acetyltransferase from Ustilago maydis is involved in dimorphism and virulence. Fungal Genet Biol 71:86–95
Grant PA, Eberharter A, John S, Cook RG, Turner BM, Workman JL (1999) Expanded lysine acetylation specificity of Gcn5 in native complexes. J Biol Chem 274:5895–5900
Hou ZM, Xue CY, Peng YL, Katan T, Kistler HC, Xu JR (2002) A mitogen activated protein kinase gene (MGV1) in Fusarium graminearum is required for female fertility, heterokaryon formation, and plant infection. Mol Plant Microb Interact 15:1119–1127
Hou R, Jiang C, Zheng Q, Wang CF, Xu JR (2015) The AreA transcription factor mediates the regulation of deoxynivalenol (DON) synthesis by ammonium and cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) signalling in Fusarium graminearum. Mol Plant Pathol 16:987–999
Howlett BJ, Jonkers W, Dong Y, Broz K, Kistler H (2012) The Wor1-like protein Fgp1 regulates pathogenicity, toxin synthesis and reproduction in the phytopathogenic fungus Fusarium graminearum. PLoS Pathog 8:e1002724
Hu S, Zhou X, Gu X, Cao S, Wang C, Xu J (2014) The cAMP-PKA pathway regulates growth, sexual and asexual differentiation, and pathogenesis in Fusarium graminearum. Mol Plant Microb Interact 27:557–566
Jain R, Valiante V, Remme N, Docimo T, Heinekamp T, Hertweck C, Gershenzon J, Haas H, Brakhage AA (2011) The map kinase mpka controls CWI, oxidative stress response, gliotoxin production and iron adaptation in Aspergillus fumigatus. Mol Microbiol 82(1):39–53
Jeon J, Kwon S, Lee YH (2014) Histone acetylation in fungal pathogens of plants. Plant Pathol J 30:1–9
Jiang J, Yun Y, Liu Y, Ma Z (2012) FgVELB is associated with vegetative differentiation, secondary metabolism and virulence in Fusarium graminearum. Fungal Genet Biol 49:653–662. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fgb.2012.06.005
Jiang C, Zhang SJ, Zhang Q, Tao Y, Wang CF, Xu JR (2015) FgSKN7 and FgATF1 have overlapping functions in ascosporogenesis, pathogenesis and stress responses in Fusarium graminearum. Environ Microbiol 17:1245–1260
Jiang C, Zhang CK, Wu CL, Sun PP, Hou R, Liu HQ, Wang CF, Xu JR (2016) TRI6 and TRI10 play different roles in the regulation of deoxynivalenol (DON) production by cAMP signalling in Fusarium graminearum. Environ Microbiol 18:3689–3701
Kong X, van Diepeningen AD, van der Lee TAJ, Waalwijk C, Xu J, Xu J, Zhang H, Chen W, Feng J (2018) The Fusarium graminearum histone acetyltransferases are important for morphogenesis, DON biosynthesis, and pathogenicity. Front Microbiol 9:654
Kumar S, Stecher G, Tamura K (2016) MEGA7: molecular evolutionary genetics analysis version 7.0 for bigger datasets. Mol Biol Evolut 33:1870-1874
Li CH, Melesse M, Zhang SJ, Hao CF, Wang CF, Zhang HC, Hall MC, Xu JR (2015) FgCDC14 regulates cytokinesis, morphogenesis, and pathogenesis in Fusarium graminearum. Mol Microbiol 98:770–786
Li C, Zhang Y, Wang H, Chen L, Zhang J, Sun M, Xu JR, Wang C (2018) The PKR regulatory subunit of protein kinase A (PKA) is involved in the regulation of growth, sexual and asexual development, and pathogenesis in Fusarium graminearum. Mol Plant Pathol 19(4):909–921
Liu X, Yin YN, Wu JB, Jiang JH, Ma ZH (2010) Identification and characterization of carbendazim-resistant isolates of Gibberella zeae. Plant Dis 94:1137–1142
Livak KJ, Schmittgen TD (2001) Analysis of relative gene expression data using real-time quantitative PCR and the 2(T) (-Delta Delta C) method. Methods 25:402–408
Luo Y, Zhang H, Qi L, Zhang S, Zhou X, Zhang Y, Xu JR (2014) FgKin1 kinase localizes to the septal pore and plays a role in hyphal growth, ascospore germination, pathogenesis, and localization of Tub1 beta-tubulins in Fusarium graminearum. New Phytol 204:943–954
Lupas AN, Gruber M (2005) The structure of alpha-helical coiled coils. Adv Protein Chem 70:37–78
Lv W, Wu J, Xu Z, Dai H, Ma Z, Wang Z (2019) The putative histone-like transcription factor fghltf1 is required for vegetative growth, sexual reproduction, and virulence in Fusarium graminearum. Curr Genet 65:981–994
Lysoe E, Seong KY, Kistler HC (2011) The transcriptome of Fusarium graminearum during the infection of wheat. Mol Plant Microbe Interact 24:995–1000
Mäntylä E, Salokas K, Oittinen M, Aho V, Mäntysaari P, Palmujoki L, Kalliolinna O, Ihalainen TO, Niskanen EA, Timonen J, Viiri K, Vihinen-Ranta M (2016) Promoter targeted histone acetylation of chromatinized 1 parvoviral genome is essential for infection progress. J Virol. https://doi.org/10.1128/JVI.03160-15
Mason JM, Arndt KM (2004) Coiled coil domains: stability, specificity, and biological implications. ChemBioChem 5:170–176
McMullen M, Bergstrom G, Wolf ED, Dill-Macky R, Hershman D, Shaner G, Sanford DV (2012) A unified effort to fight an enemy of wheat and barley: fusarium Head Blight. Plant Dis 96(12):1712–1728
Mitchell L, Lambert JP, Gerdes M, Al-Madhoun AS, Skerjanc IS, Figeys D, Baetz K (2008) Functional dissection of the NuA4 histone acetyltransferase reveals its role as a genetic hub and that eaf1 is essential for complex integrity. Mol Cell Biol 28(7):2244–2256
Park A, Cho A, Seo J, Min K, Son H, Lee J, Choi G, Kim J, Lee Y (2012) Functional analyses of regulators of G protein signaling in Gibberella zeae. Fungal Genet Biol 49:511–520
Proctor RH, Hohn TM, McCormick SP (1995) Reduced virulence of Gibberella zeae caused by disruption of a trichothecene toxin biosynthetic gene. Mol Plant Microb Interact 8:593–601
Ren J, Sang Y, Lu J, Yao YF (2017) Protein acetylation and its role in bacterial virulence. Trends Microbiol 25(9):768–779
Rosler SM, Kramer K, Finkemeier I, Humpf HU, Tudzynski B (2016) The SAGA complex in the rice pathogen Fusarium fujikuroi: structure and functional characterization. Mol Microbiol 102:951–974
Saitou N, Nei M (1987) The neighbor-joining method: a new method for reconstructing phylogenetic trees. Mol Biol Evol 4:406–425
Taverna SD, Ilin S, Rogers RS, Tanny JC, Lavender H, Li H, Baker L, Boyle J, Blair LP, Chait BT, Patel DJ, Aitchison JD, Tackett AJ, Allis CD (2007) Yng1 phd finger binding to h3 trimethylated at k4 promotes nua3 hat activity at k14 of h3 and transcription at a subset of targeted orfs. Mol Cell 24(5):785–796
Ullah M, Pelletier N, Xiao L, Zhao SP, Wang K, Degerny C, Tahmasebi S, Cayrou C, Doyon Y, Goh SL, Champagne N, Cote J, Yang XJ (2008) Molecular architecture of quartet MOZ/MORF histone acetyltransferase complexes. Mol Cell Biol 28:6828–6843
Valiante V (2017) The CWI signaling pathway and its involvement in secondary metabolite production. J Fungi 3:68
Wang CF, Zhang SJ, Hou R, Zhao ZT, Zheng Q, Xu QJ, Zheng DW, Wang GH, Liu HQ, Gao XL, Ma JW, Kistler HC, Kang ZS, Xu JR (2011) Functional analysis of the kinome of the wheat scab fungus Fusarium graminearum. PLoS Pathog 7:e1002460
Wang Y, Zhang X, Zhang H, Lu Y, Huang H, Dong X, Chen J, Dong J, Yang X, Hang H, Jiang T (2012) Coiled-coil networking shapes cell molecular machinery. Mol Biol Cell 23(19):3911–3922
Watkins AM, Wuo MG, Arora PS (2015) Protein–protein interactions mediated by helical tertiary structure motifs. J Am Chem Soc 137:11622–11630
Xie Q, Chen A, Zhang Y, Zhang C, Hu Y, Luo Z, Wang B, Yun Y, Zhou J, Li G, Wang Z (2019) ESCRT-III accessory proteins regulate fungal development and plant infection in Fusarium graminearum. Curr Genet 65:1041
Xu JR, Staiger CJ, Hamer JE (1998) Inactivation of the mitogen activated protein kinase MPS1 in the rice blast fungus prevents penetration of host cells but allows activation of plant defense responses. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 95:12713–12718
Xu L, Wang M, Tang G, Ma Z, Shao W (2019) The endocytic cargo adaptor complex is required for cell-wall integrity via interacting with the sensor fgwsc2b in Fusarium graminearum. Curr Genet 65:1071–1080
Yang X-J (2015) MOZ and MORF acetyltransferases: molecular interaction, animal development and human disease. Biochim Biophys Acta (BBA) 1853(8):1818–1826
Yi X, Cheng J, Jiang Z, Hu W, Bie T, Gao D, Li D, Wu R, Li Y, Chen S, Cheng X, Liu J, Zhang Y, Cheng S (2018) Genetic analysis of fusarium head blight resistance in CIMMYT bread wheat line C615 using traditional and conditional QTL mapping. Front Plant Sci 9:573
Yu F, Gu Q, Yun Y, Yin Y, Xu J, Shim W, Ma Z (2014) The TOR signaling pathway regulates vegetative development and virulence in Fusarium graminearum. New Phytol 203:219–232
Yuan S, Zhou M (2005) A major gene for resistance to carbendazim, in field isolates of Gibberella zeae. Can J Plant Path 27(1):58–63
Zhang Q, Akhberdi O, Wei D, Chen L, Liu H, Wang D, Hao X, Zhu X (2018) A MYST histone acetyltransferase modulates conidia development and secondary metabolism in Pestalotiopsis microspora, a taxol producer. Sci Rep 8(1):8199
Zhang L, Liu C, Wang L, Sun S, Liu A, Liang Y, Yu J, Dong H (2019a) FgPEX1 and FgPEX10 are required for the maintenance of Woronin bodies and full virulence of Fusarium graminearum. Curr Genet. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00294019-00994-8
Zhang L, Wang L, Liang Y, Yu J (2019b) FgPEX4 is involved in development, pathogenicity, and CWI in Fusarium graminearum. Curr Genet 65:747. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00294-018-0925-6
Zheng Q, Hou R, Zhang J, Ma J, Wu Z, Wang G, Wang C, Xu JR (2013) The MAT locus genes play different roles in sexual reproduction and pathogenesis in Fusarium graminearum. PLoS ONE 8:e66980
Zhou S, Wu C (2019) Comparative acetylome analysis reveals the potential roles of lysine acetylation for DON biosynthesis in Fusarium graminearum. BMC Genom. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-019-6227-7
Zhou XY, Heyer C, Choi YE, Mehrabi R, Xu JR (2010) The CID1 cyclin C-like gene is important for plant infection in Fusarium graminearum. Fungal Genet Biol 47:143–151
Acknowledgements
This study was supported by the open project of the State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Biology for Arid Areas (CSBAA2016001).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Communicated by M. Kupiec.
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Qin, J., Wu, M. & Zhou, S. FgEaf6 regulates virulence, asexual/sexual development and conidial septation in Fusarium graminearum. Curr Genet 66, 517–529 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00294-019-01043-0
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00294-019-01043-0