Abstract
Hydrophobins are amphipathic molecules which form part of fungal cell walls and extracellular matrices and perform a variety of roles in fungal growth and development. The tomato pathogen Cladosporium fulvum has six hydrophobin genes, HCf-1 to -6. We have devised an epitope tagging approach for establishing hydrophobin localization during growth in culture and in plants. In this paper we localize HCf-2, -3, -4 and -5 and compare the data to our previous observations for HCf-1 and -6. In culture, HCf-1, -2, -3 and 4 localize to conidia and also appear on aerial hyphae. HCf-4 is unique in that it appears on submerged hyphae. HCf-5 expression is tightly regulated and appears on aerial hyphae early on during growth. Only HCf-1, -3 and -6 were observed during infection; HCf-3 appears on both conidia and emerging germ tubes. We also show that HCf-6 is secreted and coats surfaces under and around growing hyphae and demonstrate the effect of deleting HCf-6 on the adhesion of germinating C. fulvum conidia to glass slides.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | FEMS Microbiology Letters |
| Volume | 286 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Pages (from-to) | 136-44 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| ISSN | 0378-1097 |
| Publication status | Published - 2008 |