Download MendeleyZymoseptoria tritici Effectors Structurally Related to Killer Proteins UmV-KP4 and UmV-KP6 Inhibit Fungal Growth, and Define Extended Protein Families in Fungi.
de Guillen, K., Mammri, L., Gracy, J., Padilla, A., Barthe, P., Hoh, F., Lahfa, M., Rouffet, J., Petit-Houdenot, Y., Kroj, T., Lebrun, M.H.(2025) Mol Plant Pathol 26: e70141-e70141
- PubMed: 40864528
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/mpp.70141
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:
9GWD - PubMed Abstract:
Fungal effectors play crucial roles in plant infection. Despite low sequence identity, they were recently discovered to belong to families with similar three-dimensional structures. In this study, we elucidated the structures of Zt-NIP1 and Mycgr3-91409-2 effectors of the wheat fungal pathogen Zymoseptoria tritici using X-ray crystallography and NMR. These effectors displayed a structural homology with, respectively, KP4 and KP6α killer toxins from UmV dsRNA viruses of the maize fungal pathogen Ustilago maydis. Consequently, Zt-NIP1 and Mycgr3-91409-2 were renamed Zt-KP4-1 and Zt-KP6-1. Orthologues and paralogues of Zt-KP4-1 and Zt-KP6-1 were identified in Zymoseptoria, but not in other fungi, except ECP2 effectors related to Zt-KP4-1. Assessment of the biological activities of Zt-KP6-1 and Zt-KP4-1 revealed their ability to inhibit fungal growth, but they were unable to induce wheat leaf necrosis. A novel pipeline relying on cysteine-pattern constrained HMM searches and Foldseek analysis of AlphaFold2 predicted structures from Uniprot generated a comprehensive inventory of KP4 and KP6 proteins in fungi and plants. Their structure-based classification revealed four KP4 and three KP6 structural superfamilies and provided far-reaching hypotheses on their biological function and evolution. This framework highlights the power of structure determination and modelling for the classification of effectors and their functional investigation.
- Centre de Biologie Structurale, Université de Montpellier INSERM U1054, CNRS UMR 5048, Montpellier, France.
Organizational Affiliation:
