On June 23, 2018, the research team for “scab disease prevention and control” from the Institute of Biotechnology published a research paper entitled The ATP-binding protein FgArb1 is essential for penetration, infectious and normal growth of Fusarium graminearum” in the journal New Phytologist. This study revealed a new functional role of ATP-binding cassette transporter in the pathogenesis and growth of pathogens.
In recent years, scab caused by the Fusarium graminearium complex has become the most important disease which threatens the wheat production in China. The deoxynivalenol (DON, also known as vomit toxin), produced by the pathogen, also seriously endangers the health of human and animal and affects the quality and safety of agricultural products. Therefore, it is of important theoretical and practical significance to understand the pathogenic mechanism and the mechanism of toxin synthesis. The research team combined the genetic and biochemical techniques in their studies and found that FgArb1, one of the 62 ABC proteins of scab, is an essential protein for the pathogenicity of this fungi. Interestingly, the ABC protein of other pathogenic fungi mainly participates in the biological activities of the pathogens such as stress resistance and pathogenicity through the active excretion of toxic substances. However, FgArb1 regulates the penetration of the pathogen through influencing the MAPK signal pathway; and regulates the synthesis of DON toxin and the adaptability to stress by affecting the export of the ribosome subunit protein. The study also found that the biological function of FgArb1 depended on protein acetylation, and the acetylation site of the protein was further identified. The results of this study provide a new idea for understanding the molecular mechanism of the regulation of eukaryotes life caused by ABC proteins.
Yanni Yin, an associate professor of the team, is the first author of the paper, and Professor Zhonghua Ma is the corresponding author. This research has been supported by the national science foundation for distinguished young scholars and the technical system of modern agricultural industry.
Link of the paper: https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/nph.15261
