Methionine biosynthesis enzyme MoMet2 is required for rice blast fungus pathogenicity by promoting virulence gene expression via reducing 5mC modification
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Published:2023-09-21
Issue:9
Volume:19
Page:e1010927
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ISSN:1553-7404
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Container-title:PLOS Genetics
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language:en
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Short-container-title:PLoS Genet
Author:
Li Huimin,
Mo Pengcheng,
Zhang Jun,
Xie Zhuoer,
Liu Xinyu,
Chen Han,
Yang Leiyun,
Liu Muxing,
Zhang Haifeng,
Wang Ping,
Zhang ZhengguangORCID
Abstract
The emergence of fungicide resistance severely threatens crop production by limiting the availability and application of established fungicides. Therefore, it is urgent to identify new fungicidal targets for controlling plant diseases. Here, we characterized the function of a conserved homoserine O-acetyltransferase (HOA) from the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae that could serve as the candidate antifungal target. Deletion of the MoMET2 and MoCYS2 genes encoding HOAs perturbed the biosynthesis of methionine and S-adenyl methionine, a methyl group donor for epigenetic modifications, and severely attenuated the development and virulence of M. oryzae. The ∆Momet2 mutant is significantly increased in 5-methylcytosine (5mC) modification that represses the expression of genes required for pathogenicity, including MoGLIK and MoCDH-CYT. We further showed that host-induced gene silencing (HIGS) targeting MoMET2 and MoCYS2 effectively controls rice blasts. Our studies revealed the importance of HOA in the development and virulence of M. oryzae, which suggests the potential feasibility of HOA as new targets for novel anti-rice blast measurements.
Funder
International Cooperation and Exchanges Projects of the Natural Science Foundation of China
Major Program of the Natural Science Foundation of China
National Key Research and Development Program of China
National Institutes of Health
Publisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subject
Cancer Research,Genetics (clinical),Genetics,Molecular Biology,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics