Autophagy in Fungi

A special issue of Journal of Fungi (ISSN 2309-608X). This special issue belongs to the section "Fungal Genomics, Genetics and Molecular Biology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 May 2023) | Viewed by 8289

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
Interests: fungal genetics; autophagy; fungus-insect interactions; fungal chemical biology; population genomics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Cell autophagy has been demonstrated with an essential role in maintaining cellular homeostasis and physiology of different eukaryotes including fungi by degrading damaged proteins or organelles in response to nutrient starvation and or adverse environments. Different fungi, especially budding yeast, have been used as research models for establishing basic autophagy processes including macroautophagy, microautophagy, and chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA) in association with the pattern of cargo delivery. Of these, macroautophagy (usually referred to as autophagy) has been mostly characterized through the formation of autophagic vesicles (i.e., autophagosomes) to selectively mediate cargo transfer and degradation in vacuoles. In contrast, microautophagy mediates the direct engulfment of cytoplasmic cargoes into vacuoles for degradation, while CMA requires the chaperone-dependent selection of soluble cytosolic proteins for degradation.

With the obtaining of different fungal genomes, different numbers of autophagy-related (Atg) genes are present in different fungi. Studies have shown that these yeast-like Atg genes may play either conservative or divergent functions in maintaining cell autophagic processes and fungal developments, including virulence against different hosts. This Special Issue on “Autophagy in Fungi” invites original research or reviews related to the studies of fungal autophagic processes and or biological aspects for publication in the Journal of Fungi

Dr. Chengshu Wang
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • macroautophagy
  • microautophagy
  • autophagosome
  • atg genes
  • lipophagy
  • mitophagy
  • virulence
  • conidiation
  • development
  • fungus–host interactions

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

10 pages, 2377 KiB  
Article
Involvement of the Autophagy Protein Atg1 in Development and Virulence in Botryosphaeria dothidea
by Na Liu, Meiqi Zhu, Yihan Zhang, Zhongqiang Wang, Baohua Li and Weichao Ren
J. Fungi 2022, 8(9), 904; https://doi.org/10.3390/jof8090904 - 26 Aug 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1979
Abstract
Botryosphaeria canker and fruit rot caused by the fungus Botryosphaeria dothidea is one of the most destructive diseases of apple worldwide. Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved self-degradation process that is important for maintaining homeostasis to ensure cellular functionality. To date, the role of [...] Read more.
Botryosphaeria canker and fruit rot caused by the fungus Botryosphaeria dothidea is one of the most destructive diseases of apple worldwide. Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved self-degradation process that is important for maintaining homeostasis to ensure cellular functionality. To date, the role of autophagy in B. dothidea is not well elucidated. In this study, we identified and characterized the autophagy-related protein Atg1 in B. dothidea. The BdAtg1 deletion mutant ΔBdAtg1 showed autophagy blockade and phenotypic defects in mycelial growth, conidiation, ascosporulation and virulence. In addition, ΔBdAtg1 exhibited an increased number of nuclei in the mycelial compartment. Comparative transcriptome analysis revealed that inactivation of BdAtg1 significantly influenced multiple metabolic pathways. Taken together, our results indicate that BdAtg1 plays an important role in vegetative differentiation and the pathogenicity of B. dothidea. The results of this study will provide a reference for the development of new target-based fungicides. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Autophagy in Fungi)
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15 pages, 3928 KiB  
Article
T-2 Toxin Induces Apoptotic Cell Death and Protective Autophagy in Mouse Microglia BV2 Cells
by Tun Sun, Qinzhi Zhang, Meng Li, Shusheng Tang and Chongshan Dai
J. Fungi 2022, 8(8), 761; https://doi.org/10.3390/jof8080761 - 22 Jul 2022
Cited by 17 | Viewed by 2269
Abstract
T-2 toxin exposure could cause neurotoxicity; however, the precise molecular mechanisms remain unclear. In the present study, we investigated T-2 toxin-induced cytotoxicity and underlying molecular mechanisms using a mouse microglia BV2 cell line. The results show that T-2 toxin treatment-induced cytotoxicity of BV2 [...] Read more.
T-2 toxin exposure could cause neurotoxicity; however, the precise molecular mechanisms remain unclear. In the present study, we investigated T-2 toxin-induced cytotoxicity and underlying molecular mechanisms using a mouse microglia BV2 cell line. The results show that T-2 toxin treatment-induced cytotoxicity of BV2 cells was dose- and time-dependent. Compared to the control, T-2 toxin treatment at 1.25–5 ng/mL significantly increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and triggered oxidative stress. T-2 toxin treatment also caused mitochondrial dysfunction in BV2 cells, which was evidenced by decreased mitochondrial transmembrane potential, upregulated expression of Bax protein, and decreased expression of Bcl-2 protein. Meanwhile, T-2 toxin treatment upregulated the expression of cleaved-caspase-3, cleaved-PARP-1 proteins, and downregulated the expression of HO-1 and nuclear Nrf2 proteins, finally inducing cell apoptosis in BV2 cells. N-acetylcysteine (NAC) supplementation significantly attenuated T-2 toxin-induced cytotoxicity. Moreover, T-2 toxin treatment activated autophagy and upregulated autophagy flux, and the inhibition of autophagy significantly promoted T-2 toxin-induced cell apoptosis. Taken together, our results reveal that T-2 toxin-induced cytotoxicity in BV2 cells involves the production of ROS, the activation of the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway, and the inhibition of the Nrf2/HO-1 pathway. Our study offers new insight into the underlying molecular mechanisms in T-2 toxin-mediated neurotoxicity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Autophagy in Fungi)
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14 pages, 3637 KiB  
Article
Responses of the Mushroom Pleurotus ostreatus under Different CO2 Concentration by Comparative Proteomic Analyses
by Rongmei Lin, Lujun Zhang, Xiuqing Yang, Qiaozhen Li, Chenxiao Zhang, Lizhong Guo, Hao Yu and Hailong Yu
J. Fungi 2022, 8(7), 652; https://doi.org/10.3390/jof8070652 - 21 Jun 2022
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3080
Abstract
Background: Pleurotus ostreatus is a popular edible mushroom in East Asian markets. Research on the responses of P. ostreatus under different carbon dioxide concentrations is limited. Methods: Label-free LC-MS/MS quantitative proteomics analysis technique was adopted to obtain the protein expression profiles of P. [...] Read more.
Background: Pleurotus ostreatus is a popular edible mushroom in East Asian markets. Research on the responses of P. ostreatus under different carbon dioxide concentrations is limited. Methods: Label-free LC-MS/MS quantitative proteomics analysis technique was adopted to obtain the protein expression profiles of P. ostreatus fruiting body pileus collected under different carbon dioxide concentrations. The Pearson correlation coefficient analysis and principal component analysis were performed to reveal the correlation among samples. The differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) were organized. Gene ontology analysis was performed to divide the DEPs into different metabolic processes and pathways. Results: The expansion of stipes was inhibited in the high CO2 group compared with that in the low CO2 group. There were 415 DEPs (131 up- and 284 down-regulated) in P. ostreatus PH11 treated with 1% CO2 concentration compared with P. ostreatus under atmospheric conditions. Proteins related to hydrolase activity, including several amidohydrolases and cell wall synthesis proteins, were highly expressed under high CO2 concentration. Most of the kinases and elongation factors were significantly down-regulated under high CO2 concentration. The results suggest that the metabolic regulation and development processes were inhibited under high CO2 concentrations. In addition, the sexual differentiation process protein Isp4 was inhibited under high CO2 concentrations, indicating that the sexual reproductive process was also inhibited under high CO2 concentrations, which is inconsistent with the small fruiting body pileus under high CO2 concentrations. Conclusions: This research reports the proteome analysis of commercially relevant edible fungi P. ostreatus under different carbon dioxide concentrations. This study deepens our understanding of the mechanism for CO2-induced morphological change in the P. ostreatus fruiting body, which will facilitate the artificial cultivation of edible mushrooms. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Autophagy in Fungi)
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