The Histone Acetyltransferase CfGcn5 Regulates Growth, Development, and Pathogenicity in the Anthracnose Fungus Colletotrichum fructicola on the Tea-Oil Tree

Abstract

The tea-oil tree (Camellia oleifera Abel.) is a commercial edible-oil tree in China, and anthracnose commonly occurs in its plantations, causing great losses annually. We have previously revealed that CfSnf1 is essential for pathogenicity in Colletotrichum fructicola, the major pathogen of anthracnose on the tea-oil tree. Here, we identified CfGcn5 as the homolog of yeast histone acetyltransferase ScGcn5, which cooperates with ScSnf1 to modify histone H3 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Targeted gene deletion revealed that CfGcn5 is important in fungi growth, conidiation, and responses to environmental stresses. Pathogenicity assays indicated that CfGcn5 is essential for C. fructicola virulence both in unwounded and wounded tea-oil tree leaves. Further, we found that CfGcn5 is localized to the nucleus and this specific localization is dependent on both NLS region and HAT domain. Moreover, we provided evidence showing that the nuclear localization is essential but not sufficient for the full function of CfGcn5, and the NLS, HAT, and Bromo domains were proven to be important for normal CfGcn5 functions. Taken together, our studies not only illustrate the key functions of CfGcn5 in growth, development, and pathogenicity but also highlight the relationship between its locations with functions in C. fructicola.

Integrated Transcriptome and Metabolome Analysis Reveals Key Metabolites Involved in Camellia oleifera Defense against Anthracnose

“…Anthracnose, a fungal disease caused by Colletotrichum spp., is one of the most pervasive and important diseases of Ca. oleifera and affects tea-oil yield and product quality, threatening the development of the tea-oil industry in China [ 38 , 39 ]. Breeding disease-resistant varieties is often the best way to manage plant diseases.…”

The Retromer Subunit CfVps29 Is Involved in the Growth, Development, and Pathogenicity of Colletotrichum fructicola

“…Firstly, the appressorium formation rate of the Δ Cfvps29 mutant was significantly reduced. In previous studies on C. fructicola , we found that the CfSNF1 , CfGCN5 , CfVPS39 , and CfVAM7 genes were involved in the regulation of appressorium development, and the mutants completely lost their pathogenicity [ 6 , 8 , 9 , 10 ]. CfVps29 may therefore be important for pathogenicity through its regulatory role in appressorium formation.…”

The SNARE Protein CfVam7 Is Required for Growth, Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress Response, and Pathogenicity of Colletotrichum fructicola

“…Anthracnose is the major disease of Ca. oleifera , which causes substantial financial loss ( Zhang et al, 2021 ). While C. fructicola has been identified as the prominent pathogen causing Ca.…”

“…For complementation strain, the CfVam7-9F and CfVam7-10R primers were designed, and the complementary fragments that included CfVAM7 gene and promoter sequences were amplified by PCR. The PCR products were purified and then co-transformed into the yeast competent cell XK-125 with pYF11 vector that was linearized using Xho I [containing bleomycin (BLE)-resistant gene and green fluorescence protein (GPF) gene] to form the complementary carrier pYF11: CfVAM7 ( Zhang et al, 2021 ). The yeast cells were cultured on SD-Trp medium for screening, and the primers CfVam7-7F/GFP-R were used for PCR identification of positive clones.…”

“…oleifera anthracnose. We recently demonstrated that CfSnf1, CfSte50, and CfGcn5 were involved in pathogenicity by regulating the appressorium formation in C. fructicola ( Zhang et al, 2019 , 2021 ; Chen et al, 2020 ). Transcription factor of CfSte12 and the MAP Kinase CfPmk1 are key regulators of pathogenesis of C. fructicola ( Liang et al, 2019 ; Liu et al, 2021 ).…”