Genome-wide functional analysis reveals that infection-associated fungal autophagy is necessary for rice blast disease

To cause rice blast disease, the fungus Magnaporthe oryzae elaborates specialized infection structures called appressoria, which use enormous turgor to rupture the tough outer cuticle of a rice leaf. Here, we report the generation of a set of 22 isogenic M. oryzae mutants each differing by a single...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2009-09, Vol.106 (37), p.15967-15972
Main Authors: Kershaw, Michael J, Talbot, Nicholas J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Apoptosis
Appressoria
autophagy
Autophagy - genetics
Autophagy - physiology
Biological Sciences
blast disease
Blasts
Cell death
Conidia
Fungi
Gene Deletion
Gene expression regulation
Genes
Genes, Fungal
Genome, Fungal
Genome-Wide Association Study
Genomics
Green Fluorescent Proteins - genetics
Host-Pathogen Interactions - genetics
Host-Pathogen Interactions - physiology
host-pathogen relationships
Infections
Magnaporthe
Magnaporthe - genetics
Magnaporthe - pathogenicity
Magnaporthe - physiology
Magnaporthe grisea
Magnaporthe oryzae
microbial genetics
Microscopy, Fluorescence
mutants
Mutation
Oryza - microbiology
Oryza sativa
Plant diseases
Plant Diseases - microbiology
Recombinant Proteins - genetics
Rice
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Summary:To cause rice blast disease, the fungus Magnaporthe oryzae elaborates specialized infection structures called appressoria, which use enormous turgor to rupture the tough outer cuticle of a rice leaf. Here, we report the generation of a set of 22 isogenic M. oryzae mutants each differing by a single component of the predicted autophagic machinery of the fungus. Analysis of this set of targeted deletion mutants demonstrated that loss of any of the 16 genes necessary for nonselective macroautophagy renders the fungus unable to cause rice blast disease, due to impairment of both conidial programmed cell death and appressorium maturation. In contrast, genes necessary only for selective forms of autophagy, such as pexophagy and mitophagy, are dispensable for appressorium-mediated plant infection. A genome-wide analysis therefore demonstrates the importance of infection-associated, nonselective autophagy for the establishment of rice blast disease.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.0901477106