Influence of the chloride channel of Fusarium oxysporum on extracellular laccase activity and virulence on tomato plants.

CLC-type voltage-gated chloride channels are a family of proteins which mediate chloride transport across the plasma and intracellular membranes. A clc1 gene from the vascular wilt fungus Fusarium oxysporum was characterized and disrupted. The predicted Clc1 protein contained highly conserved transmembrane and CBS domains of this protein family and showed significant identities to the Saccharomyces cerevisiae GEF1 and the Cryptococcus neoformans CLC-A chloride channels. Inactivation of clc1 caused a deficiency in laccase activity which was more severe than that found in any of the structural laccase mutants previously described. The addition of copper sulphate to the growth medium resulted in total recovery of extracellular laccase activity in Deltaclc1 mutants, although it did not activate transcription of any laccase genes. The pleiotropic phenotype displayed by the Fusarium chloride channel-deficient mutants included a significant delay in the development of disease on tomato plants, with a higher sensitivity to oxidative stress compounds as well as a significant decrease in laccase activity, thus suggesting a possible connection between virulence and the two processes. Nevertheless, we cannot rule out that additional phenotypes present in the Deltaclc1 mutants could play an essential role in the full virulence of Fusarium.