The Ustilago maydis Cys2His2-type zinc finger transcription factor Mzr1 regulates fungal gene expression during the biotrophic growth stage.

The smut fungus Ustilago maydis establishes a biotrophic relationship with its host plant maize to progress through sexual development. Here, we report the identification and characterization of the Cys(2)His(2)-type zinc finger protein Mzr1 that functions as a transcriptional activator during host colonization. Expression of the U.

Promoters and their regulation in Ustilago maydis and other phytopathogenic fungi.

The lifestyle of phytopathogenic fungi is strongly determined by their environment. This implies that mechanisms providing for versatile gene regulation in response to external signals or during host associations exist. In Ustilago maydis, central players of pathogenic development are the high mobility group box protein Prf1 that binds to the pheromone response element and the homeodomain transcription factor b, which recognizes an hsg-like consensus motif known from yeast Mata1-Matalpha2 DNA binding.

Identification of cis-active elements in Ustilago maydis mig2 promoters conferring high-level activity during pathogenic growth in maize.

The Ustilago maydis mig2 cluster comprises five highly homologous genes that display a pronounced plant-specific expression profile. A 350-bp mig2-5 promoter fragment contained all elements sufficient to confer differential promoter activity. Mutational analysis of this region, fused to the green fluorescent protein reporter gene, allowed dissecting core promoter elements required for high-level promoter activity from elements conferring inducible expression in planta.