The mitogen-activated protein kinase gene CcPmk1 is required for fungal growth, cell wall integrity and pathogenicity in Cytospora chrysosperma

CcPmk1 is a regulator of pathogenicity in Cytospora chrysosperma and can be used as a potential target for disease control

“…Fluorescence microscopy revealed that asiRNAs binding with FAM could be observed in the intracellular hyphae, indicating that the reduced expression of CcPmk1 resulted from the treatment with CcPmk1 asiRNAs (Figure S5). CcPmk1-silenced mutants showed obvious defects in fungal growth compared with the control sample (Figure 7c,d), which were similar to the phenotype of the CcPmk1 deletion mutants as described previously (Yu et al, 2019).…”

“…Deletion of VmPmk1 from V. mali, a necrotrophic fungus that harms the twig and stem of woody plants, shows obvious defects in oxidative stress response, cell wall integrity, and fungal pathogenicity (Wu et al, 2017). Similarly, our previous studies also found that CcPmk1 is required for fungal pathogenicity, growth, cell wall integrity, and expression of effectors (Yu et al, 2019). In this study, we conducted a transcription analysis of CcPmk1 deletion mutants during the infection process, and a subset of genes was differentially expressed, including many secondary metabolism gene clusters, transcription factors, and putative effectors that might be important for fungal pathogenicity.…”

“…We previously found that CcPmk1 is involved in fungal growth and pathogenicity in C. chrysosperma (Yu et al, 2019). Interestingly, the conserved functions in pathogenicity have been described in Pmk1 homologs from other plant-pathogenic fungi (Table 1).…”

“…Recently, Wang and Wang (2020) described the functions of three oxalic acid biosynthesis and catabolism genes that contribute to fungal pathogenicity in C. chrysosperma. Additionally, we characterized the functions of the mitogen-activated protein kinase gene, CcPmk1, and found that CcPmk1 regulates fungal growth, conidiation, cell wall integrity, and pathogenicity in C. chrysosperma (Yu et al, 2019). Research on these conserved and important pathogenicity-related components prompts us to better understand the molecular mechanism of C. chrysosperma pathogenicity.…”

Cell Wall Biogenesis Protein Phosphatase CrSsd1 Is Required for Conidiation, Cell Wall Integrity, and Mycoparasitism in Clonostachys rosea

“…In Colletotrichum orbiculare , Ssd1 is essential for penetration of appressoria into the epidermal cells of susceptible plants, and the Ssd1 -deficient mutant displays enhanced basal resistance to Nicotiana benthamiana ( Tanaka et al, 2007 , 2009 ). Moreover, deletion of Ssd1 in Colletotrichum higginsianum and Magnaporthe grisea leads to weakened penetration and virulence ( Schmidpeter et al, 2017 ; Yu et al, 2019 ). However, the functions of orthologs of Ssd1 in biocontrol fungi remain poorly understood.…”