The putative elongator complex protein Elp3 is involved in asexual development and pathogenicity by regulating autophagy in the rice blast fungus

• Published in: Journal of Integrative Agriculture Vol. 20; no. 11; pp. 2944 - 2956
• Main Authors: ZHANG, Li-mei, CHEN, Shu-ting, QI, Min, CAO, Xue-qi, LIANG, Nan, LI, Qian, TANG, Wei, LU, Guo-dong, ZHOU, Jie, YU, Wen-ying, WANG, Zong-hua, ZHENG, Hua-kun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.11.2021; Institute of Oceanography,Minjiang University,Fuzhou 350108,P.R.China%State Key Laboratory of Ecological Pest Control for Fujian and Taiwan Crops,College of Life Sciences,Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University,Fuzhou 350002,P.R.China; State Key Laboratory of Ecological Pest Control for Fujian and Taiwan Crops,College of Life Sciences,Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University,Fuzhou 350002,P.R.China%State Key Laboratory of Ecological Pest Control for Fujian and Taiwan Crops,College of Life Sciences,Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University,Fuzhou 350002,P.R.China; Fujian Universities Key Laboratory for Plant–Microbe Interaction,College of Life Sciences,Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University,Fuzhou 350002,P.R.China%Meishan Vocational and Technical College,Meishan 620010,P.R.China%State Key Laboratory of Ecological Pest Control for Fujian and Taiwan Crops,College of Life Sciences,Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University,Fuzhou 350002,P.R.China; National Engineering Research Center of JUNCAO Technology,College of Life Sciences,Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University,Fuzhou 350002,P.R.China; Elsevier
• Subjects: asexual development; autophagy; elongator; Elp3; pathogenicity; Pyricularia oryzae; pathogenicity; Pyricularia oryzae; autophagy; Elp3; asexual development; elongator
• ISSN: 2095-3119; 2352-3425
• DOI: 10.1016/S2095-3119(20)63493-1

Autophagy is responsible for maintaining fundamental cellular homeostasis and is, therefore, essential for diverse development processes. This study reported that PoElp3, the putative catalytic subunit of Elongator complex, is involved in the maintenance of autophagy homeostasis to facilitate asexual development and pathogenicity in the rice blast fungus Pyricularia oryzae. It was found that the ΔPoelp3 strains were defective in vegetative growth, conidiation, stress response, and pathogenicity. The mutants exhibited hyper-activated autophagy in the vegetative hyphae under both nutrient-rich and nutrient-deficient conditions. The hyper-activation of autophagy possibly suppressed the production of vegetative hyphae in the ΔPoelp3 strains. Moreover, the ΔPoelp3 strains were found to be more sensitive to rapamycin during vegetative- and invasive-hyphal growth but have no effect on Target-of-Rapamycin (TOR) signaling inhibition. Taken together, these results demonstrated that PoElp3 is involved in asexual development and pathogenicity by regulating autophagy in the rice blast fungus.