Deletion of FgAtg27 decreases the pathogenicity of Fusarium graminearum through influence autophagic process

Yong Wen; Mengru Wang; Xi Liu; Xiaohui Yin; Shuangjun Gong; Junliang Yin

doi:10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2025.139818

Deletion of FgAtg27 decreases the pathogenicity of Fusarium graminearum through influence autophagic process

Int J Biol Macromol. 2025 Jan 13:297:139818. doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2025.139818. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Yong Wen¹, Mengru Wang¹, Xi Liu¹, Xiaohui Yin¹, Shuangjun Gong², Junliang Yin³

Affiliations

¹ Engineering Research Center of Ecology and Agricultural Use of Wetland, Ministry of Education, MARA Key Laboratory of Sustainable Crop Production in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River (Co-construction by Ministry and Province), Hubei Engineering Research Center for Pest Forewarning and Management, College of Agriculture, Yangtze University, Jingzhou 434025, Hubei, China.
² Key Laboratory of Integrated Pest Management of Crops in Central China, Ministry of Agriculture, Hubei Key Laboratory of Crop Diseases, Insect Pests and Weeds Control, Institute of Plant Protection and Soil Science, Hubei Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wuhan 430064, Hubei, China.
³ Engineering Research Center of Ecology and Agricultural Use of Wetland, Ministry of Education, MARA Key Laboratory of Sustainable Crop Production in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River (Co-construction by Ministry and Province), Hubei Engineering Research Center for Pest Forewarning and Management, College of Agriculture, Yangtze University, Jingzhou 434025, Hubei, China. Electronic address: yinjunliang@yangtzeu.edu.cn.

PMID: 39814284
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2025.139818

Abstract

Autophagy is a conserved and unique degradation system in eukaryotic cells, which plays crucial roles in the growth, development and pathogenesis of Fungi. Despite that, it is poorly understood in Fusarium graminearum currently. Here, we identified an autophagy gene FgAtg27 from F. graminearum, and investigated its possible roles in regulating morphogenesis and pathogenicity. Results showed that FgAtg27 is homologous to Saccharomyces cerevisiae Atg27 and with an active signal peptide at N-terminal. Then, the ΔFgAtg27 mutant was generated and gene deletion did not change growth and sporulation, whereas significantly decreased pathogenicity. FgAtg27 showed subcellular localization at pre-autophagosomal structure (PAS). After starvation induction, amount of autophagosomes in ΔFgAtg27 was significantly less than wild type and complemented strain, indicating that FgAtg27 deletion affects the autophagosome formation in F. graminearum. Meanwhile, under high Ca²⁺ concentration conditions, ΔFgAtg27 exhibited slowed growth, confirming that FgAtg27 also involved in F. graminearum's hyperosmotic reaction to Ca²⁺ concentration stress. In addition, yeast two-hybrid experiments, revealed that FgAtg27 interacts with the autophagy key protein FgAtg9. Collectively, we found that the deletion of FgAtg27 did not impact the growth phenotype of F. graminearum, whereas significantly reduced its pathogenicity and Ca²⁺ stress through affecting autophagic process.

Keywords: Autophagy; FgAtg27; Fusarium graminearum.