Abstract
The phytopathogenic fungus Colletotrichum scovillei, belonging to the Colletotrichum acutatum species complex, causes severe anthracnose disease on several fruits, including chili pepper (Capsicum annuum). However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the development and pathogenicity of Colletotrichum scovillei are unclear. The conserved Fus3/Kss1-related MAPK regulates fungal development and pathogenicity. Here, the role of CsPMK1, orthologous to Fus3/Kss1, was characterized by phenotypic comparison of a target deletion mutant (ΔCspmk1). The mycelial growth and conidiation of ΔCspmk1 were normal compared to that of the wild type. ΔCspmk1 produced morphologically abnormal conidia, which were delayed in conidial germination. Germinated conidia of ΔCspmk1 failed to develop appressoria on inductive surfaces of hydrophobic coverslips and host plants. ΔCspmk1 was completely defective in infectious growth, which may result from failure to suppress host immunity. Furthermore, ΔCspmk1 was impaired in nuclear division and lipid mobilization during appressorium formation, in response to a hydrophobic surface. CsPMK1 was found to interact with CsHOX7, a homeobox transcription factor essential for appressorium formation, via a yeast two-hybridization analysis. Taken together, these findings suggest that CsPMK1 is required for fungal development, stress adaptation, and pathogenicity of C. scovillei.
Highlights
Fungal species of the genus Colletotrichum cause serious anthracnose disease on a wide range of crops, vegetables, and fruits worldwide, resulting in considerable economic losses (Perfect et al, 1999; Cannon et al, 2012; De Silva et al, 2019)
These results suggest that CsPMK1 plays important roles in fungal developments, stress adaptation, and pathogenicity in C. scovillei
Our study provides a fundamental insight into mechanism underlying fruit anthracnose development, which would contribute to developing a novel strategy to control anthracnose disease of fruits
Summary
Fungal species of the genus Colletotrichum cause serious anthracnose disease on a wide range of crops, vegetables, and fruits worldwide, resulting in considerable economic losses (Perfect et al, 1999; Cannon et al, 2012; De Silva et al, 2019). The orthologs of PMK1 were demonstrated to be essential for appressorium formation in appressorium-forming fungi, including the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae, the cucumber anthracnose fungus Colletotrichum lagenarium, and poplar anthracnose fungus Colletotrichum gloeosporioides (Xu and Hamer, 1996; Takano et al, 2000; He et al, 2017) This MAPK is indispensable in plant penetration and infectious growth in many non-appressorium-forming fungi, such as the biotrophic fungus Claviceps purpurea and necrotrophic fungus Fusarium graminearum (Mey et al, 2002; Urban et al, 2003). The lipids metabolism and nuclear division were defective in the CsPMK1 deletion mutant during appressorium developed from germ tube and mycelia These results suggest that CsPMK1 plays important roles in fungal developments, stress adaptation, and pathogenicity in C. scovillei. Our study provides a fundamental insight into mechanism underlying fruit anthracnose development, which would contribute to developing a novel strategy to control anthracnose disease of fruits
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