自噬蛋白CfAtg7在果生刺盘孢中的功能

Anthracnose is prevalent in major oil-tea production regions across the country, severely compromising yield and quality of oil-tea Camellia oleifera. Colletotrichum fructicola is the dominant pathogenic fungus responsible for this disease, and understanding its pathogenic mechanisms is fundamental for controlling Ca. oleifera anthracnose. In eukaryotes, autophagy is a conserved intracellular degradation pathway and serves as the primary route for degrading macromolecular proteins and damaged organelles. Atg7, a core autophagy protein, plays crucial roles in many plant-pathogenic fungi. However, its biological functions in Co. fructicola remains unclear. In this study, the CfATG7 gene knockout mutant ΔCfatg7 and its complementary strain ΔCfatg7/CfATG7 were constructed, and their phenotype and pathogenicity were assayed. The results demonstrate that CfAtg7 is involved in regulating autophagy, vegetative growth, conidiation, and appressorium formation. It also participates in the responses to endoplasmic reticulum stress, cell wall integrity stress, and oxidative stress, revealing the pleiotropic roles of the autophagy protein CfAtg7 in Co. fructicola. This study elucidated the biological functions of CfAtg7 in Co. fructicola, providing experimental evidence for the development of novel fungicides targeting this protein.