Endosomal sorting complexes required for transport‐0 is essential for fungal development and pathogenicity in Fusarium graminearum

Summary Fusarium graminearum is an important plant pathogen that causes head blight of major cereal crops. The vacuolar protein sorting (Vps) protein Vps27 is a component of ESCRT‐0 involved in the multivesicular body (MVB) sorting pathway during endocytosis. In this study, we investigated the function of FgVps27 using a gene replacement strategy. The FgVPS27 deletion mutant ( ΔFgvps27 ) exhibited a reduction in growth rate, aerial hyphae formation and hydrophobicity. It also showed increased sensitivity to cell wall‐damaging agents and to osmotic stresses. In addition, FgHog1, the critical component of high osmolarity glycerol response pathway, was mis‐localized in the ΔFgvps27 mutant upon NaCl treatment. Furthermore, the ΔFgvps27 mutant was defective in conidial production and was unable to generate perithecium in sexual reproduction. The depletion of FgVPS27 also caused a significant reduction in virulence. Further analysis by domain‐specific deletion revealed that the FYVE domain was essential for the FgVps27 function and was necessary for the proper localization of FgVps27‐GFP and endocytosis. Another component of ESCRT‐0, the FgVps27‐interacting partner FgHse1, also played an important role in F. graminearum development and pathogenesis. Overall, our results indicate that ESCRT‐0 components play critical roles in a variety of cellular and biological processes.