Bin Qian, Lingyuan Guo, Chi Song, Hong Ji.

J Fungi (Basel).; 2023 Jan 12; 9(1):106. doi: 10.3390/jof9010106.

Abstract

In eukaryotes, Maf1 is an essential and specific negative regulator of RNA polymerase (Pol) III. Pol III, which synthesizes 5S RNA and transfer RNAs (tRNAs), is suppressed by Maf1 under the conditions of nutrient starvation or environmental stress. Here, we identified M. oryzae MoMaf1, a homolog of ScMaf1 in budding yeast. A heterogeneous complementation assay revealed that MoMaf1 restored growth defects in the ΔScmaf1 mutant under SDS stress. Destruction of MoMAF1 elevated 5S rRNA content and increased sensitivity to cell wall agents. Moreover, the ΔMomaf1 mutant exhibited reduced vegetative growth, conidiogenesis, and pathogenicity. Interestingly, we found that MoMaf1 underwent nuclear-cytoplasmic shuffling, through which MoMaf1 accumulated in nuclei under nutrient deficiency or upon the interaction of M. oryzae with rice. Therefore, this study can help to elucidate the pathogenic molecular mechanism of M. oryzae.

See https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36675927/

Figure 1

Expression profiles of MoMAF1 at different developmental stages in M. oryzae determined by yeast complementation assays: (A) MoMAF1 partially suppressed the growth defect of ΔScmaf1 mutant yeast under 0.1% SDS stress. Photographs were taken at 4 days. (B) Expression levels of MoMAF1 at different stages in M. oryzae. Expression in the hyphal stage was used as an internal reference, and error bars represent the standard deviation (SD). Values on the bars followed by the same letter are not significantly different at (p < 0.05).