An adenosine kinase in apoplastic location is involved in Magnaporthe oryzae cold acclimation

Abstract

Cold acclimation is an important process to increase freezing tolerance for over-winter survival in many organisms. The apoplastic area is very important in cold acclimation. Two-dimensional electrophoresis was used to identify apoplastic proteins involved in the cold acclimation process of the filamentous fungus Magnaporthe oryzae, and nine protein spots showed at least 1.5-fold increase during cold treatment. These proteins were further analyzed by matrix-assisted laser-desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry. One of these proteins was identified to be an adenosine kinase (MoAK), an ortholog of the adenosine kinase from Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The MoAK gene showed significantly increased in transcription level. Microscopic analyses showed that an MoAK::GFP fusion protein was localized in the apoplastic region. The MoAk protein showed anti-freezing activity when expressed in yeast. These results indicated that cold acclimation is crucial for fungal freezing tolerance and MoAK played an important role in this process in M. oryzae.

Keywords: Adenosine kinase; Apoplastic proteins; Cold acclimation; Magnaporthe oryzae.