Fungal secreted proteins that contain the Common in Fungal Extracellular Membrane (CFEM) domain are important for pathogenicity.  The hemibiotrophic fungus Colletotrichum graminicola causes the serious anthracnose disease of maize.  In this study, we identified 24 CgCFEM proteins in the genome of C. graminicola.  Phylogenic analysis revealed that these 24 proteins (CgCFEM1–24) can be divided into 2 clades based on the presence of the trans-membrane domain.  Sequence alignment analysis indicated that the amino acids of the CFEM domain are highly conserved and contain 8 spaced cysteines, with the exception that CgCFEM1 and CgCFEM24 lack 1 and 2 cysteines, respectively.  Ten CgCFEM proteins with a signal peptide and without the trans-membrane domain were considered as candidate effectors and, thus were selected for structural prediction and functional analyses.  The CFEM domain in the candidate effectors can form a helical-basket structure homologous to the Csa2 protein in Candida albicans, which is responsible for haem acquisition and pathogenicity.  Subcellular localization analysis revealed that these effectors accumulate in the cell membrane, nucleus, and cytosolic bodies.  Additionally, 5 effectors, CgCFEM6, 7, 8, 9 and 15, can suppress the BAX-induced programmed cell death in Nicotiana benthamiana with or without the signal peptide.  These results demonstrate that these 10 CgCFEM candidate effectors with different structures and subcellular localizations in host cells may play important roles during the pathogenic processes on maize plants.

 

China is currently the world’s leading producer of Lentinula edodes and owns many cultivated strains of this species.  This study was performed in order to investigate intergenic spacer 1 (IGS1) polymorphism and classification among 49 popular cultivated strains.  The great majority of the 49 strains possessed two different IGS1 sequences, with distinct lengths and homologies.  Based on the length and homology of the IGS1 sequences of the 49 strains, the strains were classified into two groups: A and B.  Group A was subdivided into six subgroups.  Forty-seven strains were homozygous or heterozygous among these six subgroups in group A, Cr01 was heterozygous between A and B, and Guangxiang 9 was homozygous in group B.  An IGS1 polymorphism map of each cultivated L. edodes strain is reported for the first time and could be used as a marker for the initial classification and management of cultivated L. edodes strains in China.