Jie Mei, Zhiqiang Li, Shaoqun Zhou, Xiao-Lin Chen, Richard A. Wilson, Wende Liu*. Effector secretion and stability in the maize anthracnose pathogen Colletotrichum graminicola requires N-linked protein glycosylation and the ER chaperone pathway. New Phytologist, 2023, doi:10.1111/nph.19213
Summary
l N-linked protein glycosylation is a conserved and essential modification mediating protein processing and quality control in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), but how this contributes to the infection cycle of phytopathogenic fungi is largely unknown.
l In this study, we discovered that inhibition of protein N-glycosylation severely affected vegetative growth, hyphal tip development, conidial germination, appressorium formation, and, ultimately, the ability of the maize (Zea mays) anthracnose pathogen Colletotrichum graminicola to infect its host.
l Quantitative proteomics analysis showed that N-glycosylation can coordinate protein O-glycosylation, glycosylphosphatidylinositol anchor modification, and endoplasmic reticulum quality control (ERQC) by directly targeting the proteins from the corresponding pathway in the ER. We performed a functional study of the N-glycosylation pathway-related protein CgALG3 and of the ERQC pathway-related protein CgCNX1, which demonstrated that N-glycosylation of ER chaperone proteins is essential for effector stability, secretion, and pathogenicity of C. graminicola.
l Our study provides concrete evidence for the regulation of effector protein stability and secretion by N-glycosylation.
New Phytologist, IF=9.4
https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nph.19213