Advances in functional research of RGS proteins in fungi

Abstract:

G protein is located in the hub of the cellular signal transduction network, important in regulating the activity of G-protein. Regulators of G protein signaling (RGS) primarily function as GTPase-accelerating proteins (GAPs) that promote GTP hydrolysis by the Gα subunits, thereby inactivating the G protein and rapidly switching off G protein-coupled signaling pathways. Since the first RGS protein was identified from the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, more than 30 RGS proteins have been characterized from several typical fungi, such as Aspergillus nidulans, Metarhizium anisopliae, Magnaporthe oryzae, Gibberella zeae, Fusarium verticillioides, Cryptococcus neoformans and Candida albicans. RGS proteins play pivotal roles in fungi including vegetative growth, sporulation, mycotoxin/pigment production, pathogenicity and mating. In this review, the functions of RGS proteins in different fungi were summarized, and the functional domains and regulation mechanism of RGS proteins in fungi were discussed.