Fungicide resistance toward fludioxonil conferred by overexpression of the phosphatase gene MoPTP2 inMagnaporthe oryzae

• DOI: 10.1111/mmi.14179
• Publication Date: 2018-12-08T13:39:18Z
• Authors: Stefan Bohnert; Larissa Heck; Christoph Gruber; Hendrik Neumann; Ute Distler; Stefan Tenzer; Alexander Yemelin; Eckhard Thines; Stefan Jacob
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; 2. Zero hunger; Proteome; Gene Expression; Oryza; Dioxoles; Phosphoproteins; Fungicides, Industrial; Fungal Proteins; Magnaporthe; 03 medical and health sciences; Drug Resistance, Fungal; Pyrroles; Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases; Phosphorylation; Protein Tyrosine Phosphatases; Protein Processing, Post-Translational; Gene Deletion; Plant Diseases

SummaryThe fungicide fludioxonil causes hyperactivation of the Hog1p MAPK within the high‐osmolarity glycerol signaling pathway essential for osmoregulation in pathogenic fungi. The molecular regulation of MoHog1p phosphorylation is not completely understood in pathogenic fungi. Thus, we identified and characterized the putative MoHog1p‐interacting phosphatase geneMoPTP2in the filamentous rice pathogenMagnaporthe oryzae. We found overexpression ofMoPTP2conferred fludioxonil resistance inM. oryzae, whereas the ‘loss of function’ mutantΔMoptp2was more susceptible toward the fungicide. Additionally, quantitative phosphoproteome profiling of MoHog1p phosphorylation revealed lower phosphorylation levels of MoHog1p in the MoPtp2p overexpression mutant compared to the wild‐type strain, whereas MoHog1p phosphorylation increased in theΔMoptp2mutant. Furthermore, we identified a set of MoHog1p‐dependent genes regulated by the MoPtp2p expression level. Our results indicate that the phosphatase MoPtp2p is involved in the regulation of MoHog1p phosphorylation and that overexpression of the geneMoPTP2is a novel molecular mechanism of fungicide resistance.