The distinct wiring between cell cycle regulation and the widely conserved Morphogenesis-Related (MOR) pathway in the fungus Ustilago maydis determines the morphological outcome

Abstract

The MOR (Morphogenesis-related NDR kinase) pathway regulates morphogenesis in fungi. In spite of the high conservation of its components, impairing their functions results in highly divergent cellular responses depending on the fungal species. The reasons for such differences are unclear. Here we propose that the species-specific connections between the cell cycle regulation and the MOR pathway could be in part responsible for these divergences. We based our conclusion on the characterization of the MOR pathway in the fungus Ustilago maydis. Each gene that encodes proteins of this pathway in U. maydis was deleted. All mutants exhibited a constitutive hyperpolarized growth contrasting with the loss of polarity observed in other fungi. Using a conditional allele of the central NDR kinase Ukc1, we found that impairing MOR function resulted in an elongated G2 phase. This cell cycle delay appears to be the consequence of an increase in Cdk1 inhibitory phosphorylation. Strikingly, abrogation of the inhibitory Cdk1 phosphorylation prevents the hyperpolarized growth associated with MOR pathway depletion. We found that enlarged G2 phase resulted in higher levels of expression of crk1, a conserved kinase that promotes polar growth in U. maydis. Deletion of crk1 also abolished the dramatic activation of polar growth in cells lacking MOR pathway. Taken together, our results suggest that Cdk1 inhibitory phosphorylation may act as an integrator of signaling cascades regulating fungal morphogenesis and that the distinct morphological response observed in U. maydis upon impairment of the MOR pathway could be due to a cell cycle deregulation.