Chen Xiaolin's group has made new progress in the regulation of the pathogenic mechanism of rice blast fungus by epigenetic modification

Nanhu News Network News (correspondent Ren Zhiyong) Recently, the research results of Chen Xiaolin's research group in the State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology and the School of Plant Science and Technology of our school are titled "MTA1-mediated RNA m6A modification regulates autophagy and is required for infection of the rice blast fungus.

Figure 1.

RNA m6A modification is the most common modification of mRNA in eukaryotes.

Figure 2.

After MTA1 gene knockout, the total m6A modification of oryzae was significantly reduced, and the pathogenicity of the bacteria was severely reduced

Figure 3.

Further analysis revealed that the transcripts of some ATG genes regulating autophagy process were modified by m6A, including ATG8

This study is the first to systematically reveal the molecular mechanism of RNA m6A modification regulating the process of phytopathogenic fungi, which provides a new perspective for in-depth understanding of the pathogenic mechanism of phytopathogenic fungi, and may provide new ideas for the development of fungal disease prevention and control strategies.

Ren Zhiyong, a doctoral student at the School of Plant Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, and Dr.

Reviewer: Chen Xiaolin

【English summary】

In eukaryotes, N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is abundant on mRNA, which plays key roles in the regulation of RNA function.

Combing with biochemical analysis, MeRIP-seq and RNAseq methods, as well as biological analysis, we showed Magnaporthe oryzae MTA1 gene is an ortholog of human METTL4, which is involved in m6A modification and plays a critical role in autophagy for fungal infection.

The Δmta1 mutant showed reduced virulence due to blockage of appressorial penetration and invasive growth.

Our findings reveal the functional importance of the m6A methylation in infection of M.

Paper link :

https://nph.