2026-10-13T13:03:04Z https://api.figshare.com/v2/oai

oai:figshare.com:article/33637806 2026-09-11T20:00:11Z category_7 category_8 category_12 category_13 category_14 category_61 category_132 category_133 portal_87 item_type_3 month_year_09_2026

MoCul4 assists MoKmt1 to catalyze H3K9 methylation and regulates the growth, development, and pathogenicity in <i>Magnaporthe oryzae</i> Pengyun Huang (641955) Chaohao Xu (15860729) Jing Wang (6206297) Yunran Zhang (11766465) Huijuan Cao (182733) Jiale Wang (1526317) Haiping Qiu (279918) Xiao-Hong Liu (275663) Jiaoyu Wang (279915) Fu-Cheng Lin (404178) Jianping Lu (320027) Medicine Microbiology Cell Biology Genetics Molecular Biology Developmental Biology Infectious Diseases Plant Biology Magnaporthe oryzae H3K9 methylation histone methyltransferase Cullin4 pathogenicity gene expression profiles <p>Rice blast, caused by the filamentous fungus <i>Magnaporthe oryzae</i>, is a serious disease of rice. In this study, by using homologous recombination, gene knockout mutants of Δ<i>Mokmt1</i> (a histone methyltransferase) and Δ<i>Mocul4</i> (Cullin4 subunit of an E3 ubiquitin ligase) were generated. Phenotypic analysis revealed that both MoKmt1 and MoCul4 are essential for fungal growth, development, and pathogenicity. Compared to the wild-type strain, the Δ<i>Mokmt1</i> mutant exhibited a slower growth rate (11.6% reduction) and significantly decreased virulence. Western blot analysis confirmed a significant decrease of H3K9 trimethylation (H3K9me3) levels in Δ<i>Mokmt1</i>. These results illustrate MoKmt1 is the key enzyme catalyzing H3K9me3 in <i>M. oryzae</i>, which is critical for fungal growth, development, and pathogenicity. Notably, the Δ<i>Mocul4</i> mutant displayed similar but more severe developmental defects than Δ<i>Mokmt1</i>, including a 32.8% reduction in growth rate, 90.4% decrease in conidiation, and a significant reduction in lesion area. Both MoCul4 and MoKmt1 were localized in the nucleus. Like Δ<i>Mokmt1</i>, H3K9me3 levels in Δ<i>Mocul4</i> were nearly abolished, suggesting that MoCul4 modulates the methyltransferase activity of MoKmt1. RNA-seq analysis further revealed that 1,033 out of 2,910 differentially expressed genes (35.5%) were co-regulated by both MoKmt1 and MoCul4. The expression level of <i>MoMAT1-1</i> and <i>MoMAT A1-1</i>, located in heterochromatin, was upregulated in both mutants, indicating compromised integrity of heterochromatin. This study demonstrates that MoCul4, functioning in the same pathway as MoKmt1 in <i>M. oryzae</i>, orchestrates the MoKmt1-mediated H3K9me3 epigenetic regulatory network, thereby providing a theoretical foundation for developing novel fungicides targeting epigenetic regulation.</p> 2026-09-11T20:00:11Z Dataset Dataset 10.6084/m9.figshare.33637806.v1 https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/MoCul4_assists_MoKmt1_to_catalyze_H3K9_methylation_and_regulates_the_growth_development_and_pathogenicity_in_i_Magnaporthe_oryzae_i_/33637806 CC BY 4.0