FgFAD12 Regulates Vegetative Growth, Pathogenicity and Linoleic Acid Biosynthesis in Fusarium graminearum

Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), as important components of lipids, play indispensable roles in the development of all organisms. ∆12 fatty acid desaturase (FAD12) is a speed-determining step in the biosynthesis of PUFAs. Here, we report the characterization of FAD12 in Fusarium graminearum, which is the prevalent agent of Fusarium head blight, a destructive plant disease worldwide. The results demonstrated that deletion of the FgFAD12 gene resulted in defects in vegetative growth, conidial germination and plant pathogenesis but not sexual reproduction. A fatty acid analysis further proved that the deletion of FgFAD12 restrained the reaction of oleic acid to linoleic acid, and a large amount of oleic acid was detected in the cells. Moreover, the ∆Fgfad12 mutant showed increased resistance to osmotic stress and reduced tolerance to oxidative stress. The expression of FgFAD12 did show a temperature-dependent manner, which was not affected at a low temperature of 10 °C when compared to 25 °C. RNA-seq analysis further demonstrated that most genes enriched in fatty acid metabolism, the biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acids, fatty acid biosynthesis, fatty acid degradation, steroid biosynthesis and fatty acid elongation pathways were significantly up-regulated in the ∆Fgfad12 mutants. Overall, our results indicate that FgFAD12 is essential for linoleic acid biosynthesis and plays an important role in the infection process of F. graminearum.