Sequence conservation of Pit2 in related smut fungi and the role of a conserved domain for interaction with cysteine proteases.

<p>(<b>A</b>) Alignment of <i>U. maydis</i> Pit2 (Um01375) and orthologs from the barley covered smut fungus <i>Ustilago hordei</i> (Uh02064) and the maize anther smut <i>Sporisorium reilianum</i> (Sr10529). Red box marks predicted secretion signals. Magenta labels identical (dark) and similar (light) amino acid residues. Orange box shows a 14 amino acid, highly conserved sequence stretch (residues 44–57). Green box marks the four aromatic residues that were addressed by targeted mutagenesis (see <a href="http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.ppat.1003177#ppat-1003177-t001" target="_blank">Table 1</a>). (<b>B</b>) Y2H analysis of Pit2 mutants carrying deletions of the conserved domain shown in (A). (<b>C</b>) Y2H of Pit2 mutants carrying mutations of the conserved domain shown in (A) and <a href="http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.ppat.1003177#ppat-1003177-t001" target="_blank">Table 1</a>. BD: Gal4 Binding Domain. AD: Gal4 Activation Domain.