FpCzf14 is a putative C2H2 transcription factor regulating conidiation in Fusarium pseudograminearum

Linlin Chen,Yuming Ma,Jingya Zhao,Yan Shi,Mengya Peng,Huiqing Xia,Xiaoping Xing,Honglian Li,Yankun Liu,Bingjian Sun

doi:10.1186/s42483-020-00074-7

Abstract

C2H2 zinc finger transcription factors such as FlbC and Msn2, have broad regulatory roles in fungal growth and conidiation. In the present study, we cloned and characterized a C2H2 zinc finger transcription factor gene, FpCzf14, in the wheat pathogen Fusarium pseudograminearum. FpCzf14 was localized to the nuclei. The expression of FpCzf14 was significantly upregulated in conidia, suggesting that FpCzf14 might contribute to conidiation. Further analysis of the fpczf14-deleted mutant (Δfpczf14) demonstrated that it exhibited defect in conidiation, and this defect was restored in the complemented strain Δfpczf14-C expressing FpCzf14, demonstrating that FpCzf14 was essential for conidiation. Moreover, FpCzf14 was required for mycelial growth and pathogenicity of F. pseudograminearum. Microscopic observation results showed that Δfpczf14 produced only very few penetration pegs and invasive hyphae inside host tissues compared with WT and Δfpczf14-C. Additionally, results of reverse transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) showed that FpCzf14 regulated expression of several conidiation-related genes in F. pseudograminearum. In conclusion, FpCzf14, as a core regulatory gene in conidiation, provides new insights into the mechanism of conidiation in F. pseudograminearum.

Highlights

Fusarium pseudograminearum, commonly found in soil and various decaying plant materials, is an important pathogen causing Fusarium crown rot (FCR) and Fusarium head blight (FHB) of wheat and barley (Kazan and Gardiner 2018; Zhou et al 2019)
The FpCzf14 protein contains three Cys2/ His2-type (C2H2) zinc finger (CZF) domains that are highly conserved among different CZF transcription factors (TFs) (Fig. 1a)
The relative expression level of FpCzf14 was further validated by reverse transcription-quantitative Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) (RT-qPCR), and the transcript level of FpCzf14 increased to a maximum in conidia, suggesting a potential role of this gene in conidiation of F. pseudograminearum (Fig. 1c)

Summary

Introduction

Commonly found in soil and various decaying plant materials, is an important pathogen causing Fusarium crown rot (FCR) and Fusarium head blight (FHB) of wheat and barley (Kazan and Gardiner 2018; Zhou et al 2019). Many genes encoding for the CZF domain-containing proteins have been characterized from a wide variety of organisms, including animals, plants and fungi (Carrillo et al 2017; Mackeh et al 2018; Han et al 2020). CZF TFs have been found to be involved in multiple cellular processes in plant pathogenic fungi. Among 47 CZF TFs that were deleted in Magnaporthe oryzae using gene knockout method, 44 were found to be required for fungal growth, development and pathogenicity (Cao et al 2016). In Fusarium graminearum, 16 of 91 CZF TFs are involved in FHB (Son et al 2011). FolCZF1 that encodes a CZF TF in F. oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici is essential for conidiation, infection and fusaric acid production (Yun et al 2019)

Methods

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Discussion

Conclusion