Unique Expansion of PARP Family Proteins in the Fusarium oxysporum Species Complex

Presenter

Cecelia Murphy

Campus

UMass Amherst

Sponsor

Li-Jun Ma, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, UMass Amherst

Schedule

Session 4, 2:30 PM - 3:15 PM [Schedule by Time][Poster Grid for Time/Location]

Location

Poster Board A22, Campus Center Auditorium, Row 2 (A21-A40) [Poster Location Map]

Abstract

Fusarium oxysporum is a cross-kingdom fungal pathogen known for its devastation of economically important agricultural crops and contributing to disseminated fusariosis and fusarium keratitis. Understanding the regulatory mechanisms that govern pathogenicity is essential for the development of effective agricultural and medical methods to control F. oxysporum infections. This study focuses on the poly-ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) protein family, which participates in numerous regulatory cellular functions including DNA repair, apoptosis, chromatin remodeling, and cell cycle regulation by synthesizing chains of ADP-ribose molecules. Comparative genomic analysis revealed its unique expansion in the Fusarium oxysporum species complex, ranging from three to twenty copies across strains, with expansion copies exclusively located on accessory chromosomes. The catalytic triad H-Y-E motif responsible for poly-ADP ribosylation, characterized in the human PARP1 protein, was identified in the F. oxysporum ortholog, and several variant motifs which suggest mono-ADP ribosylation were identified in expansion copies. Utilizing two plant pathogens, a biocontrol strain, and a human keratitis strain as a comparative system, we discovered that PARP copy number is positively correlated with survival rates in the presence of DNA damage agents. Knocking out Parp1, which is the primary DNA repair PARP, significantly reduced infection severity in Arabidopsis thaliana and tomato plants, and increased sensitivity to human macrophages. This suggests that the PARP family in F. oxysporum not only plays a role in the response to DNA damage, it may also be involved in host-pathogen interactions. We believe that these findings open future possibilities for investigating precise mechanisms of this host-microbe interaction.

Keywords

host-microbe interactions, CRISPR, post-translational modifications, DNA damage repair

Research Area

Biological Organisms

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