Regulation of the expression of the whole genome of Ustilago maydis by a MAPK pathway

pH Changes Have a Profound Effect on Gene Expression, Hydrolytic Enzyme Production, and Dimorphism in Saccharomycopsis fibuligera

Saccharomycopsis fibuligera is an amylolytic yeast that plays an important role within nuruk (a traditional Korean fermentation starter) used for the production of makgeolli (Korean rice wine), which is characterized by high acidity. However, the effect of pH change (neutral to acidic) on the yeast cell to hyphal transition and carbohydrate-hydrolyzing enzyme activities for S. fibuligera has not been investigated yet. In this study, S. fibuligera strains were cultured under the different pH conditions, and the effect on the enzyme production and gene expression were investigated. An acidic pH induced a hyphal transition from yeast cell of S. fibuligera KPH12 and the hybrid strain KJJ81. In addition, both strains showed a gradual decrease in the ability to degrade starch and cellulose as the pH went down. Furthermore, a transcriptome analysis demonstrated that the pH decline caused global expression changes in genes, which were classified into five clusters. Among the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) under acidic pH, the downregulated genes were involved in protein synthesis, carbon metabolism, and RIM101 and cAMP-PKA signaling transduction pathways for the yeast-hyphal transition. A decrease in pH induced a dimorphic lifestyle switch from yeast cell formation to hyphal growth in S. fibuligera and caused a decrease in carbohydrate hydrolyzing enzyme production, as well as marked changes in the expression of genes related to enzyme production and pH adaptation. This study will help to elucidate the mechanism of adaptation of S. fibuligera to acidification that occur during the fermentation process of makgeolli using nuruk.

Molecular Mechanisms Involved in the Multicellular Growth of Ustilaginomycetes

Multicellularity is defined as the developmental process by which unicellular organisms became pluricellular during the evolution of complex organisms on Earth. This process requires the convergence of genetic, ecological, and environmental factors. In fungi, mycelial and pseudomycelium growth, snowflake phenotype (where daughter cells remain attached to their stem cells after mitosis), and fruiting bodies have been described as models of multicellular structures. Ustilaginomycetes are Basidiomycota fungi, many of which are pathogens of economically important plant species. These fungi usually grow unicellularly as yeasts (sporidia), but also as simple multicellular forms, such as pseudomycelium, multicellular clusters, or mycelium during plant infection and under different environmental conditions: Nitrogen starvation, nutrient starvation, acid culture media, or with fatty acids as a carbon source. Even under specific conditions, Ustilago maydis can form basidiocarps or fruiting bodies that are complex multicellular structures. These fungi conserve an important set of genes and molecular mechanisms involved in their multicellular growth. In this review, we will discuss in-depth the signaling pathways, epigenetic regulation, required polyamines, cell wall synthesis/degradation, polarized cell growth, and other cellular-genetic processes involved in the different types of Ustilaginomycetes multicellular growth. Finally, considering their short life cycle, easy handling in the laboratory and great morphological plasticity, Ustilaginomycetes can be considered as model organisms for studying fungal multicellularity.

The signaling mechanisms involved in the dimorphic phenomenon of the Basidiomycota fungus Ustilago maydis

In the present manuscript, we describe the mechanisms involved in the yeast-to-hypha dimorphic transition of the plant pathogenic Basidiomycota fungus Ustilago maydis. During its life cycle, U. maydis presents two stages: one in the form of haploid saprophytic yeasts that divide by budding and the other that is the product of the mating of sexually compatible yeast cells (sporidia), in the form of mycelial dikaryons that invade the plant host. The occurrence of the involved dimorphic transition is controlled by the two mating loci a and b. In addition, the dimorphic event can be obtained in vitro by different stimuli: change in the pH of the growth medium, use of different carbon sources, and by nitrogen depletion. The presence of other factors and mechanisms may affect this phenomenon; among these, we may cite the PKA and MAPK signal transduction pathways, polyamines, and factors that affect the structure of the nucleosomes. Some of these factors and conditions may affect all these dimorphic events, or they may be specific for only one or more but not all the processes involved. The conclusion reached by these experiments is that U. maydis has constituted a useful model for the analysis of the mechanisms involved in cell differentiation of fungi in general.

Cloning and disruption of the UeArginase in Ustilago esculenta: evidence for a role of arginine in its dimorphic transition

Background

Ustilago esculenta, a typical dimorphic fungus could infect Zizania latifolia and induce host stem swollen to form an edible vegetable called Jiaobai in China. The strains differentiation especially in the mating ability and pathogenicity is closely related to different phenotypes of Jiaobai formed in the fields. Dimorphic switching, a tightly regulated processes, is essential for the pathogenetic development of dimorphic fungi. In responses to environment cues, dimorphic switching can be activated through two conserved cell signaling pathways-PKA and MAPK pathways. Previous study indicated that exogenous arginine could induce hyphal formation in several dimorphic fungi through hydrolysis by arginase, but inhibit the dimorphic transition of U. esculenta. We conducted this study to reveal the function of arginine on dimorphic transition of U. esculenta.

Results

In this study, we found that arginine, but not its anabolites, could slow down the dimorphic transition of U. esculenta proportionally to the concentration of arginine. Besides, UeArginase, predicated coding arginase in U. esculenta was cloned and characterized. UeArginase mutants could actually increase the content of endogenous arginine, and slow down the dimorphic transition on either nutritious rich or poor medium. Either adding exogenous arginine or UeArginase deletion lead to down regulated expressions of UePkaC, UePrf1, mfa1.2, mfa2.1, pra1 and pra2, along with an increased content of arginine during mating process.

Conclusion

Results of this study indicated a direct role of arginine itself on the inhibition of dimorphic transition of U. esculenta, independent of its hydrolysis by UeArginase.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s12866-019-1588-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Host-induced silencing of essential genes in Puccinia triticina through transgenic expression of RNAi sequences reduces severity of leaf rust infection in wheat

Leaf rust, caused by the pathogenic fungus Puccinia triticina (Pt), is one of the most serious biotic threats to sustainable wheat production worldwide. This obligate biotrophic pathogen is prevalent worldwide and is known for rapid adaptive evolution to overcome resistant wheat varieties. Novel disease control approaches are therefore required to minimize the yield losses caused by Pt. Having shown previously the potential of host-delivered RNA interference (HD-RNAi) in functional screening of Pt genes involved in pathogenesis, we here evaluated the use of this technology in transgenic wheat plants as a method to achieve protection against wheat leaf rust (WLR) infection. Stable expression of hairpin RNAi constructs with sequence homology to Pt MAP-kinase (PtMAPK1) or a cyclophilin (PtCYC1) encoding gene in susceptible wheat plants showed efficient silencing of the corresponding genes in the interacting fungus resulting in disease resistance throughout the T2 generation. Inhibition of Pt proliferation in transgenic lines by in planta-induced RNAi was associated with significant reduction in target fungal transcript abundance and reduced fungal biomass accumulation in highly resistant plants. Disease protection was correlated with the presence of siRNA molecules specific to targeted fungal genes in the transgenic lines harbouring the complementary HD-RNAi construct. This work demonstrates that generating transgenic wheat plants expressing RNAi-inducing transgenes to silence essential genes in rust fungi can provide effective disease resistance, thus opening an alternative way for developing rust-resistant crops.

Profiles of metabolic gene expression in the white adipose tissue, liver and hypothalamus in leptin knockout (LepΔI14/ΔI14 ) rats

Leptin deficiency is principally linked to metabolic disorders. Leptin knockout (LepΔI14/ΔI14) Sprague Dawley rats created by CRISPR/Cas9 is a new model to study metabolic disorders. We used a whole rat genome oligonucleotide microarray to obtain tissue-specific gene expression profiles of the white adipose tissue, liver and hypothalamus in LepΔI14/ΔI14 and wild-type (WT) rats. We found 1,651 differentially expressed (enriched) genes in white adipose tissue, 916 in the liver, and 306 in the hypothalamus in the LepΔI14/ΔI14 rats compared to WT. Gene ontology category and KEGG pathway analysis of the relationships among differentially expressed genes showed that these genes were represented in a variety of functional categories, including fatty acid metabolism, molecular transducers and cellular processes. The reliability of the data obtained from microarray was verified by quantitative real-time PCR on 14 representative genes. These data will contribute to a greater understanding of different metabolic disorders, such as obesity and diabetes.

Functional analysis of the MAPK pathways in fungi

The Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase (MAPK) signaling pathways constitute one of the most important and evolutionarily conserved mechanisms for the perception of extracellular information in all the eukaryotic organisms. The MAPK pathways are involved in the transfer to the cell of the information perceived from extracellular stimuli, with the final outcome of activation of different transcription factors that regulate gene expression in response to them. In all species of fungi, the MAPK pathways have important roles in their physiology and development; e.g. cell cycle control, mating, morphogenesis, response to different stresses, resistance to UV radiation and to temperature changes, cell wall assembly and integrity, degradation of cellular organelles, virulence, cell-cell signaling, fungus-plant interaction, and response to damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs). Considering the importance of the phylogenetically conserved MAPK pathways in fungi, an updated review of the knowledge on them is discussed in this article. This information reveals their importance, their distribution in fungal species evolutionarily distant and with different lifestyles, their organization and function, and the interactions occurring between different MAPK pathways, and with other signaling pathways, for the regulation of the most complex cellular processes.