Genetic Diversity of Weedy Rice and Its Potential Application as a Novel Source of Disease Resistance.

Weeds that infest crops are a primary factor limiting agricultural productivity worldwide. Weedy rice, also called red rice, has experienced independent evolutionary events through gene flow from wild rice relatives and de-domestication from cultivated rice. Each evolutionary event supplied/equipped weedy rice with competitive abilities that allowed it to thrive with cultivated rice and severely reduce yields in rice fields.

De novo purine nucleotide biosynthesis mediated by MoAde4 is required for conidiation, host colonization and pathogenicity in Magnaporthe oryzae.

Amidophosphoribosyltransferase catalyzes the conversion of 5-phosphoribosyl-1-pyrophosphate into 5-phosphoribosyl-1-amine in the de novo purine biosynthetic pathway. Herein, we identified and characterized the functions of MoAde4, an orthologue of yeast Ade4 in Magnaporthe oryzae. MoAde4 is a 537-amino acid protein containing GATase_6 and pribosyltran domains.

MoCpa1-mediated arginine biosynthesis is crucial for fungal growth, conidiation, and plant infection of Magnaporthe oryzae.

Arginine is an important amino acid involved in processes such as cell signal transduction, protein synthesis, and sexual reproduction. To understand the biological roles of arginine biosynthesis in pathogenic fungi, we used Cpa1, the carbamoyl phosphate synthase arginine-specific small chain subunit in Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a query to identify its ortholog in the Magnaporthe oryzae genome and named it MoCpa1. MoCpa1 is a 471-amino acid protein containing a CPSase_sm_chain domain and a GATase domain.

Is Important for Vegetative Growth, Conidiogenesis, Maintenance of Cell Wall Integrity and Pathogenesis of .

Glutamine is a non-essential amino acid that acts as a principal source of nitrogen and nucleic acid biosynthesis in living organisms. In , glutamine synthetase catalyzes the synthesis of glutamine. To determine the role of glutamine synthetase in the development and pathogenicity of plant fungal pathogens, we used Gln1 amino acid sequence to identify its orthologs in and named them MoGln1, MoGln2, and MoGln3.

Endoplasmic reticulum-associated degradation mediated by MoHrd1 and MoDer1 is pivotal for appressorium development and pathogenicity of Magnaporthe oryzae.

Most secretory proteins are folded and modified in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER); however, protein folding is error-prone, resulting in toxic protein aggregation and cause ER stress. Irreversibly misfolded proteins are subjected to ER-associated degradation (ERAD), modified by ubiquitination, and degraded by the 26S proteasome. The yeast ERAD ubiquitin ligase Hrd1p and multispanning membrane protein Der1p are involved in ubiquitination and transportation of the folding-defective proteins.

Advances in Understanding Mating Type Gene Organization in the Mushroom-Forming Fungus .

The initiation of sexual development in the important edible and medicinal mushroom is controlled by special genes at two different, independent, mating type (MAT) loci: HD and PR. We expanded our understanding of the mating type system by analyzing the MAT loci from a series of strains. The HD locus of houses genes ( genes) on two separated locations: sublocus HD-a and HD-b.