MoNap1, a Nucleosome Assemble Protein 1, Regulates Growth, Development, and Pathogenicity in Magnaporthe oryzae

Abstract

Nap1 is an evolutionarily conserved protein from yeast to human and is involved in diverse physiological processes, such as nucleosome assembly, histone shuttling between the nucleus and cytoplasm, transcriptional regulation, and the cell cycle regulation. In this paper, we identified nucleosome assemble protein MoNap1 in Magnaporthe oryzae and investigated its function in pathogenicity. Deletion of MoNAP1 resulted in reduced growth and conidiation, decreased appressorium formation rate, and impaired virulence. MoNap1 affects appressorium turgor and utilization of glycogen and lipid droplets. In addition, MoNap1 is involved in the regulation of cell wall, oxidation, and hyperosmotic stress. The subcellular localization experiments showed that MoNap1 is located in the cytoplasm. MoNap1 interacts with MoNbp2, MoClb3, and MoClb1 in M. oryzae. Moreover, deletion of MoNBP2 and MoCLB3 has no effects on vegetative growth, conidiation, and pathogenicity. Transcriptome analysis reveals that MoNAP1 is involved in regulating pathogenicity, the melanin biosynthetic process. Taken together, our results showed that MoNap1 plays a crucial role in growth, conidiation, and pathogenicity of M. oryzae.

A novel MAP kinase‐interacting protein MoSmi1 regulates development and pathogenicity in Magnaporthe oryzae

“…Through RNA sequencing (RNA‐seq) analysis, we previously found that the gene MGG_03970 was upregulated in the Δ Monap1 mutant (Zhang, Chen, et al., 2022 ; Zhang, Wang, et al., 2022 ). To verify the reliability of transcriptome data, we assessed the transcription levels of MGG_03970 in Guy11 and Δ Monap1 mutant using reverse transcription‐quantitative PCR (RT‐qPCR).…”

“…We previously reported a nucleosome assembly protein, MoNap1, that regulates appressorium formation, response to cell wall stresses, cytoplasmic division, and virulence (Zhang, Wang, et al., 2022 ). Based on transcriptome data previously, we screened for differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between the wild‐type Guy11 and Δ Monap1 mutant and identified MGG_03970 .…”