Protein activity of the Fusarium fujikuroi rhodopsins CarO and OpsA and their relation to fungus-plant interaction

Adam, Alexander (author), Deimel, Stephan (author), Pardo-Medina, Javier (author), García-Martínez, Jorge (author), Konte, Tilen (author), Limón, M. Carmen (author), Avalos, Javier (author), Terpitz, Ulrich (author)

Fungi possess diverse photosensory proteins that allow them to perceive different light wavelengths and to adapt to changing light conditions in their environment. The biological and physiological roles of the green light-sensing rhodopsins in fungi are not yet resolved. The rice plant pathogen Fusarium fujikuroi exhibits two different rhodopsins, CarO and OpsA. CarO was previously characterized as a light-driven proton pump. We further analyzed the pumping behavior of CarO by patch-clamp experiments. Our data show that CarO pumping activity is strongly augmented in the presence of the plant hormone indole-3-acetic acid and in sodium acetate, in a dose-dependent manner under slightly acidic conditions. By contrast, under these and other tested conditions, the Neurospora rhodopsin (NR)-like rhodopsin OpsA did not exhibit any pump activity. Basic local alignment search tool (BLAST) searches in the genomes of ascomycetes revealed the occurrence of rhodopsin-encoding genes mainly in phyto-associated or phytopathogenic fungi, suggesting a possible correlation of the presence of rhodopsins with fungal ecology. In accordance, rice plants infected with a CarO-deficient F. fujikuroi strain showed more severe bakanae symptoms than the reference strain, indicating a potential role of the CarO rhodopsin in the regulation of plant infection by this fungus.

• Language: English
• Keywords: fungal rhodopsins, protein activity, indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), CarO, OpsA, Fusarium fujikuroi, Oryza sativa, rice–plant infection, green light perception, bakanae, patch-clamp
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: MF - Faculty of Medicine
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2018
• Number of pages: 20 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 19, iss. 1, art. 215
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-131881
• UDC: 577
• ISSN on article: 1422-0067
• DOI: 10.3390/ijms19010215
• COBISS.SI-ID: 33683161
• Publication date in RUL: 05.10.2021

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: International journal of molecular sciences
• Shortened title: Int. j. mol. sci.
• Publisher: MDPI
• ISSN: 1422-0067
• COBISS.SI-ID: 2779162

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.
• Licensing start date: 11.01.2018

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: glivični rodopsini, aktivnost beljakovin, indol-3-ocetna kislina (IAA)