A Comprehensive Analysis of the Small GTPases Ypt7 Involved in the Regulation of Fungal Development and Secondary Metabolism in M7.

Ypts (east rotein ransport),also called as as-ssociated inding GTPases (Rab), are the largest group of the small GTPases family, which have been extensively studied in model eukaryotic cells and play a pivotal role in membane trafficking, while this study showed potential regulation role of Ypts in fungi. One of Ypts, Ypt7 may be involved in fungal development and secondary metabolism, but the exact mechanism still exists a controversy. In current study, the functions of a homologous gene (7) from M7 was investigated by combination of gene-deletion (Δ7), overexpression (M7::-7) and transcriptome analysis. Results showed that the radial growth rate of Δ7 was significantly slower than M7, little conidia and ascospores can be observed in Δ7, but the yield of intracellular secondary metabolites was dramatically increased. Simultaneously, the 7 overexpression strain possessed similar capacity for sporulation and secondary metabolism observed in M7. Transcriptome results further illustrated that 7 could coordinate with numerous genes involved in the vegetative growth, conidiogenesis, secondary metabolism biosynthesis and transportation of M7. Combined with the similar effect of Ypt7 homologs on other fungi, we propose that Ypt7 works more like a global regulatory factor in fungi. To our knowledge, it is the first time to investigate Ypt7 functions in . It could also improve the understanding of Ypt7 functions in fungi.