Glycosylphosphatidylinositol Anchor Biosynthesis Pathway-Related Protein GPI7 Is Required for the Vegetative Growth and Pathogenicity of

Glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchoring is a common post-translational modification in eukaryotic cells and has been demonstrated to have a wide range of biological functions, such as signal transduction, cellular adhesion, protein transport, immune response, and maintaining cell wall integrity. More than 25 proteins have been proven to participate in the GPI anchor synthesis pathway which occurs in the cytoplasmic and the luminal face of the ER membrane. However, the essential proteins of the GPI anchor synthesis pathway are still less characterized in maize pathogen . In the present study, we analyzed the biological function of the GPI anchor synthesis pathway-related gene, Cg that encodes an ethanolamine phosphate transferase, which is localized in ER. The vegetative growth and conidia development of the mutant was significantly impaired in and qRT-PCR results showed that the transcriptional level of was specifically induced in the initial infection stage and that the pathogenicity of mutant was also significantly decreased compared with the wild type. Furthermore, the mutant displayed more sensitivity to cell wall stresses, suggesting that may play a role in the cell wall integrity of . Cell wall synthesis-associated genes were also quantified in the mutant, and the results showed that chitin and β-1,3-glucans synthesis genes were significantly up-regulated in mutants. Our results suggested that is required for vegetative growth and pathogenicity and might depend on the cell wall integrity of .