Abstact

Magnaporthe oryzae is a model fungal plant pathogen employed for studying plant-fungi interactions. Whole genome sequencing and bioinformatics analyses revealed that this fungal pathogen has more than 12,000 protein-coding genes with 65% of the genes remaining functionally un-annotated. Here, we determine the structure of the hypothetical protein, MGG_01005 and show that it is the Magnaporthe oryzae Dynein light chain Tctex-type 1 (dynlt1/3), demonstrated by its structural similarity to other orthologous dynlt1 proteins and its conserved interaction with the N-terminus of the Magnaporthe oryzae dynein intermediate chain, MoDyn1I2. In addition, we present the structure of the MGG_01005-MoDyn1I2 complex together with mutagenesis studies that reveals a di-histidine motif interaction with a glutamate residue in the dynein intermediate chain within a conserved molecular interface. These results demonstrate the utility of structure-based annotation and validate it as a viable approach for the molecular assignment of hypothetic proteins from phyto-pathogenic fungi.