earticle

영어

Glycosylation contributes to various molecular and cellular functions such as protein folding, localization, secretion, cell signaling, and communication by transferring glycans to proteins or lipids. Glycoproteins are expected to play essential roles for various biological processes including pathogenicity and reproductions in fungi; however, little is known about glycosylation process in filamentous fungi, especially in plant pathogenic fungi. The plant pathogenic fungus Fusarium graminearum causes a devastating disease called Fusarium head blight (FHB) on cereal crops. In addition to grain yield losses, infection of this pathogen causes severe contamination of mycotoxins, which are harmful to human and animal health. To understand molecular mechanisms underlying development and pathogenesis of this fungus, putative 78 N or O-glycosylation-related gene (GLY) knockout mutant library is being generated and we have successfully obtained 53 deletion mutations till now. Phenotypic changes, such as vegetative growth, sexual and asexual reproduction, and virulence of the mutants are being analyzed. Some mutants showed severe phenotypic defects suggesting that individual GLY gene plays important roles in this fungus. The ongoing works are focusing on the elucidation of the potential roles of GLY genes in diverse biological processes, such as fungal virulence, mycotoxin production and we are also analyzing glycan structure of glycoproteins in F. graminearum. This study is the first comprehensive functional analysis of GLY gene in plant pathogenic fungi, and it will be the fungal glycobiome study initiative.