Mitochondrial outer membrane translocase MoTom20 modulates mitochondrial morphology and is important for infectious growth of the rice blast fungus.

Mitochondria are highly dynamic organelles that constantly change their morphology to adapt the cellular environment through fission and fusion, which is critical for a cell to maintain normal cellular functions. Despite the significance of this process in the development and pathogenicity of the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae (M. oryzae), the underlying mechanism remains largely elusive. Here, we identified and characterized a mitochondrial outer membrane translocase MoTom20 in M. oryzae. Targeted gene deletion revealed that MoTom20 plays an important role in vegetative growth, conidiogenesis, penetration and infectious growth of M. oryzae. The growth rate, conidial production, appressorium turgor and pathogenicity are decreased in the ΔMotom20 mutant compared to that in the wild type and complemented strains. Further analysis revealed that MoTom20 localizes in mitochondrion and plays a key role in regulating mitochondrial fission and fusion balance which is critical for infectious growth. Finally, we found that MoTom20 is involved in fatty acid utilization and its yeast homolog ScTom20 is able to rescue the defects of ΔMotom20 in mitochondrial morphology and pathogenicity. Overall, our data demonstrate that MoTom20 is a key regulator for mitochondrial morphology maintenance which is important for infectious growth of the rice blast fungus.