Crop disease green prevention and control research team reveals new functions of pathogenic fungi early secretion pathway

Nanhu News Network (correspondent Xie Chong) Recently, our school’s green crop disease prevention and control research team revealed that the p24 family protein in the early secretion pathway of fungi regulates the secretion of proteins, thereby affecting the growth and development and pathogenicity of fungi.
It provides a new idea for the effective control of plant fungal diseases
.

According to estimates by relevant authorities, as many as 30% of the global annual plant harvest is lost due to plant diseases, and more than 80% of plant diseases are caused by fungal infection
.

Analyzing the growth and development and pathogenic mechanism of plant pathogenic fungi can provide a theoretical basis for the green prevention and control of fungal diseases, and is of great significance to the protection of crop production safety

Secreted proteins play an important role in the pathogenesis of pathogens, especially some secreted proteins can interact with plants as effectors and become the focus of research
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Therefore, inhibiting the normal protein secretion pathway of pathogenic fungi is one of the ideal disease control strategies

SsEmp24 and SsErv25 mutants affect the growth, reproduction and pathogenicity of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum

Randy W.
Schekman shared the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his research on the vesicle transport and regulation mechanism in the secretory pathway of yeast (non-filamentous fungi), but scientists have relatively little knowledge about the secretory pathway of filamentous fungi
.

The scholars of our school used the sclerotinia sclerotiorum mutant Sunf-MT6 as the test material and identified the protein SsEmp24 and its interaction protein SsErv25 that are involved in the pathogenicity and development of sclerotinia sclerotiorum through comparative transcriptome technology

The scientific research team further researched and found that SsEmp24 and SsErv25 are co-localized in the endoplasmic reticulum/nuclear envelope, and both belong to the p24 family of proteins involved in the early secretion pathway
.

They found that the lack of function of SsEmp24 or SsErv25 resulted in abnormal protein secretion of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, which in turn affected the biological characteristics of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum

SsEmp24-SsErv25 interaction regulates the early secretion pathway of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum and affects its growth and pathogenesis

In their research, scholars from our school revealed that the p24 family protein Emp24-Erv25 complex in filamentous fungi recruits cargo proteins into vesicles and participates in the early secretory pathway through vesicle transport
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It is the first time that the p24 family proteins participate in the growth, reproduction and pathogenicity of filamentous pathogenic fungi by mediating protein secretion, and the core position of Emp24 protein in the p24 family has been clarified, which enriches the understanding of early secretion pathways for other species The functional study of the mesosecretory pathway provides a reference

Related results were published on mBio under the title "Early secretory pathway-associated proteins SsEmp24 and SsErv25 are involved in morphogenesis and pathogenicity in a filamentous phytopathogenic fungus"
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Huazhong Agricultural University State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, Hubei Provincial Key Laboratory of Crop Disease Monitoring and Safety Control, PhD student Xie Chong from the School of Plant Science and Technology is the first author of the paper, Associate Professor Xiao Xueqiong is the corresponding author, Associate Professor Wang Gaofeng, Xiao Yannong Professor Jiang Daohong and Professor Xie Jiatao participated in the research work
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The research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the special fund for basic scientific research operations of central universities, and the National Rape Industry Technology System

Reviewer: Xiao Xueqiong

【English summary】

Proper protein secretion is critical for fungal development and pathogenesis.

Article link: https://journals.