Jr. Xu et Je. Hamer, MAP KINASE AND CAMP SIGNALING REGULATE INFECTION STRUCTURE FORMATION AND PATHOGENIC GROWTH IN THE RICE BLAST FUNGUS MAGNAPORTHE-GRISEA, Genes & development, 10(21), 1996, pp. 2696-2706
Many fungal pathogens invade plants using specialized infection struct
ures called appressoria that differentiate from the tips of fungal hyp
hae contacting the plant surface. We demonstrate a role for a MAP kina
se that is essential for appressorium formation and infectious growth
in Magnaporthe grisea, the fungal pathogen responsible for rice blast
disease. The PMK1 gene of M. grisea is homologous to the Saccharomyces
cerevisiae MAP kinases FUS3/KSS1, and a GST-Pmk1 fusion protein has k
inase activity in vitro. pmk1 mutants of M. grisea fail to form appres
soria and fail to grow invasively in rice plants. pmk1 mutants are sti
ll responsive to cAMP for early stages of appressorium formation, whic
h suggests Pmk1 acts downstream of a cAMP signal for infection structu
re formation. PMK1 is nonessential for vegetative growth and sexual an
d asexual reproduction in culture. Surprisingly, when expressed behind
the GAL1 promoter in yeast, PMK1 can rescue the mating defect in a fu
s3 kss1 double mutant. These results demonstrate that PMK1 is part of
a highly conserved MAP kinase signal transduction pathway that acts co
operatively with a cAMP signaling pathway for fungal pathogenesis.