Proteomic analysis revealed the function of PoElp3 in development, pathogenicity, and autophagy through the tRNA-mediated translation efficiency in the rice blast fungus

The Elongator complex is conserved in a wide range of species and plays crucial roles in diverse cellular processes. We have previously shown that the Elongator protein PoElp3 was involved in the asexual development, pathogenicity, and autophagy of the rice blast fungus. In this study, we further revealed that PoElp3 functions via tRNA-mediated protein integrity. Phenotypic analyses revealed that overexpression of two of the tRNAs, tK(UUU) and tQ(UUG) could rescue the defects in ΔPoelp3 strain. TMT-based proteomic and transcriptional analyses demonstrated that 386 proteins were down-regulated in ΔPoelp3 strain compared with wild type strain Guy11, in a transcription-independent manner. Codon usage assays revealed an enrichment of Glutamine CAA-biased mRNA in the 386 proteins compared with the 70-15 genome. In addition to those reported previously, we also found that PoErp9, a sphingolipid C9-methyltransferase, was down-regulated in the ΔPoelp3 strain. Through an ILV2-specific integration of PoERP9-GFP into the wild type and ΔPoelp3 strain, we were able to show that PoErp9 was positively regulated by PoElp3 translationally but not transcriptionally. Functional analyses revealed that PoErp9 was involved in the fungal growth, conidial development, pathogenicity, and TOR-related autophagy homeostasis in Pyricularia oryzae. Taken together, our results suggested that PoElp3 acts through the tRNA-mediated translational efficiency to regulate asexual development, pathogenicity, sphingolipid metabolism, and autophagy in the rice blast fungus.