Functional role of in stress response, pathogenicity, and fumonisins production in .

Endoplasmic reticulum-mitochondrial encounter structure (ERMES), the protein complex that tethers mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum, is critical for mitochondrial functions and various cellular processes. Our preliminary studies showed that mitochondrial integrity was critical for fumonisin biosynthesis. However, the biological roles of ERMES and its subunits in phytopathogenic fungi, especially their roles in the regulation of fumonisin biosynthesis remain ambiguous. In this current study, we investigated the biological functions of FvMdm10, the core component of ERMES, in the fumonisin-producing fungus . The gene-deletion mutant ΔFvMdm10 exhibited attenuated virulence on intact maize kernels compared with the wild-type strain M3125, which partially attributed to impaired vegetative growth and conidia germination. In addition, ΔFvMdm10 became more resistant to QoIs when compared to M3125. Furthermore, we observed anomalous vacuole morphology in ΔFvMdm10, subsequently leading to decreased FB production. Noticeably, ∆FvMdm10 takes advantage of accumulated lipid droplets to overcome the oxidative stress generated by HO. Taken together, our results showed that is critical for fungal development, stress response, lipid biogenesis and fumonisins biosynthesis in the toxigenic fungus .