Proteomic analysis reveals that naturally produced citral can significantly disturb physiological and metabolic processes in the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae

Abstract Rice blast (Magnaporthe oryzae), a major fungal disease in rice producing areas all over the world as well as in China, seriously affects the safety of rice production. Citral, a mixture of Z/E and trans isomers, is a natural acycloid monoterpene compound with good bacteriostatic effect on rice blast. To further investigate the underlying molecular mechanism, a comparative proteomics analysis was conducted between citral-treated and non-treated M. oryzae spores through two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. Our analysis identified 1600–1800 proteins from M. oryzae ZB15, of which 147 were differentially expressed in 100 μg/mL citral-treated samples relative to the control group. Among these differentially expressed proteins (DEPs), 40 proteins showed significantly different expression. GO enrichment and NCBI conserved domains database analysis showed that the main groups of the cellular component were cytoplasm (23.33%), and the major molecular function categories were ion binding (31.37%), and the major categories of biological processes included small molecule metabolic process (22.22%) and transport (13.89%). Further analysis found that down-regulated proteins included the tubulin α chain, ATP synthase subunit β and malate dehydrogenase, while the tubulin β, enolase were upregulated. These DEPs could possibly limit the availability of energy required for many cellular processes and result in various physiological adaptions of M. oryzae. This study represents the first proteomic analysis of M. oryzae treated by citral and will help to uncover the mode-of-action of this biologically active compound against M. oryzae. These findings have practical implications with respect to the use of citral for fungal disease control.