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On the move: endosomes in fungal growth and pathogenicity

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 5, pages 309–316 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

Fungi invade substrates, such as host tissues, through hyphal tip growth. This article focuses on the corn smut fungus Ustilago maydis, in which tip growth and pathogenicity involve apical endocytic recycling by early endosomes. These organelles rapidly move bi-directionally along microtubules and this movement is mediated by opposing molecular motors. This motility seems to be essential for extended hyphal growth, possibly because it focuses the endocytic machinery at the hyphal tip and mediates communication between the tip and the sub-apical nucleus.

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Figure 1: The life cycle of Ustilago maydis.
Figure 2: Recycling of the pheromone receptor Pra1 in wild-type and Yup1ts mutants.
Figure 3: Concepts of microtubule-based bi-directional organelle transport.
Figure 4: The role of kinesin-1, kinesin-3 and dynein in early endosome motility and apical recycling in Ustilago maydis.
Figure 5: Potential roles for long-distance transport of early endosomes in pheromone signalling.

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Acknowledgements

I am grateful to my research team, who are responsible for the rapid progress in understanding endocytosis and endosome motility in U. maydis. In addition, I wish to thank R. Kahmann for continuous support and K. Brune for improving the manuscript. Our work is supported by the International Max Planck Research School and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.

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  1. Gero Steinberg is at the Max-Planck-Institut für terrestrische Mikrobiologie, Karl-von-Frisch Strabe D-35043 Marburg, Germany. Gero.Steinberg@mpi-marburg.mpg.de,

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Entrez Genome Project

Candida albicans

Coprinopsis cinerea

Histoplasma capsulatum

Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Ustilago maydis

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Steinberg, G. On the move: endosomes in fungal growth and pathogenicity. Nat Rev Microbiol 5, 309–316 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro1618

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