The role of Clt1-regulated-Xylan metabolism in the melanin and toxin formation for the pathogenicity of Curvularia lunata in Maize
We previously reported that the BTB domain-containing protein Clt1 regulates melanin and toxin synthesis, conidiation, and pathogenicity in Curvularia lunata, but the interacting proteins and regulative mechanism of Clt1 are unclear. In this research, we identified two proteins, which respectively correspond to xylanase (Clxyn24) and acetyl xylan esterase (Claxe43) from C. lunata were regulated by Clt1. Yeast two-hybrid (Y2H), and bimolecular fluorescence complementation assays were conducted to verify the interaction of Clt1 with full-length Clxyn24 and Claxe43. Furthermore, the Y2H assay revealed that Clt1 physically interacted with Clxyn24 and Claxe43 through its BTB domain to degrade xylan which was used as a carbon source for C. lunata growth. The utilization of xylan provides acetyl-CoA for the synthesis of melanin and toxin, as well as energy and other intermediate metabolites for conidiation. Furthermore, transcriptome analysis revealed that PKS18 and its 13 flanking genes are found clustered in a region spanning 57.89 kb on scaffold 9 of the C. lunata CX-3 genome were down-regulated in toxin production deficient mutant T806, and this cluster is possibly responsible for toxin biosynthesis of C. lunata.