A carnitine-acylcarnitine carrier protein, MoCrc1, is essential for pathogenicity in Magnaporthe oryzae.

The rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae forms a specialized infection structure called an appressorium to breach the host-plant epidermis for successful infection. In this study, a mutant defective in appressorial penetration was isolated by a mutagenesis approach, in which an exogenous DNA fragment was found to be inserted into the first exon of MoCRC1. This gene encodes a putative carnitine-acylcarnitine carrier protein that is widely conserved among eukaryotic organisms. Deletion of MoCRC1 severely reduces appressorium turgor generation, appressorial penetration, and development of infection hyphae. The null mutant of MoCRC1 lost pathogenicity on intact and abraded host leaves. MoCRC1 was also found to be required for growth on minimal medium containing sodium acetate or olive oil. Moreover, the transformed MoCrc1-eGFP fusion protein was expressed throughout the infection process. Our results suggest that the carnitine-acylcarnitine carrier protein plays vital roles in appressorium-mediated infection and is essential for pathogenesis of M. oryzae and perhaps other phytopathogenic fungi.