9.B.57 The Conidiation and Conidial Germination Protein (CCGP) Family
The MTP1 gene, encoding a type III integral transmembrane protein, was isolated from the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae. The Mtp1 protein is 520 amino acids long and is probably orthologous to the Ytp1 protein of Saccharomyces cerevisiae with 46% sequence similarity. Prediction programs and MTP1-GFP (green fluorescent protein) fusion expression results indicated that Mtp1 is a protein located at several membranes exposed to the cytoplasm. The MTP1 gene was primarily expressed at the hyphal and conidial stages and is necessary for conidiation and conidial germination, but is not required for pathogenicity. The Δmtp1 mutant grew more efficiently than the wild type strain on non-fermentable carbon sources, implying that MTP1 has a role in respiratory growth and carbon source use (Lu et al. 2008).