The Developmental History of Ustilago maydis: A Saprophytic Yeast, a Mycelial Fungus, Mushroom-Like, and a Smut

Ruíz-Herrera, José; Cabrera-Ponce, José Luis; León-Ramírez, Claudia Geraldine; Rodríguez, Fernando Pérez; Salazar-Chávez, Mayela Fernanda; Sánchez-Arreguín, Alejandro; Velez-Haro, John Martin

doi:10.1007/978-981-13-9349-5_2

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Within these tumors, the dikaryon proliferates and changes its morphology into melanized spores that eventually break the plant cells and tumors to disperse. Eventually, the spores germinate to produce haploid progeny capable of reinitiating the fungal life cycle [ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chitosan Is Necessary for the Structure of the Cell Wall, and Full Virulence of Ustilago maydis

Sánchez-Arreguín

Ortiz-Castellanos

Robledo-Briones

et al. 2022

JoF

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Smut fungi comprise a large group of biotrophic phytopathogens infecting important crops, such as wheat and corn. U. maydis is a plant pathogenic fungus responsible for common smut in maize and teocintle. Through our analysis of the transcriptome of the yeast-to-mycelium dimorphic transition at acid pH, we determined the number of genes encoding chitin deacetylases of the fungus, and observed that the gene encoding one of them (UMAG_11922; CDA1) was the only one up-regulated. The mutation of this gene and the analysis of the mutants revealed that they contained reduced amounts of chitosan, were severely affected in their virulence, and showed aberrant mycelial morphology when grown at acid pH. When the CDA1 gene was reinserted into the mutants by the use of an autonomous replication plasmid, virulence and chitosan levels were recovered in the retro mutant strains, indicating that the CDA1 gene was involved in these features. These data revealed that chitosan plays a crucial role in the structure and morphogenesis of the cell wall during mycelial development of the fungus, and that in its absence, the cell wall becomes altered and is unable to support the stress imposed by the defense mechanism mounted on by the plant host during the infection process.

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