Open AccessLocalization of Cladosporium fulvum hydrophobins reveals a role for HCf‐6 in adhesion
Author(s) -
Lacroix Hélène,
Whiteford James R.,
Spanu Pietro D.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
fems microbiology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.899
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1574-6968
pISSN - 0378-1097
DOI - 10.1111/j.1574-6968.2008.01227.x
Subject(s) - hydrophobin , hypha , conidium , cladosporium , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , germ tube , extracellular , cell wall , spore , botany , biochemistry , gene , aspergillus
Hydrophobins are amphipathic molecules which form part of fungal cell walls and extracellular matrices and perform a variety of roles in fungal growth and development. The tomato pathogen Cladosporium fulvum has six hydrophobin genes, HCf‐1 to ‐6. We have devised an epitope tagging approach for establishing hydrophobin localization during growth in culture and in plants. In this paper we localize HCf‐2, ‐3, ‐4 and ‐5 and compare the data to our previous observations for HCf‐1 and ‐6. In culture, HCf‐1, ‐2, ‐3 and 4 localize to conidia and also appear on aerial hyphae. HCf‐4 is unique in that it appears on submerged hyphae. HCf‐5 expression is tightly regulated and appears on aerial hyphae early on during growth. Only HCf‐1, ‐3 and ‐6 were observed during infection; HCf‐3 appears on both conidia and emerging germ tubes. We also show that HCf‐6 is secreted and coats surfaces under and around growing hyphae and demonstrate the effect of deleting HCf‐6 on the adhesion of germinating C. fulvum conidia to glass slides.