The decrotonylase FoSir5 facilitates mitochondrial metabolic state switching in conidial germination of Fusarium oxysporum

Fusarium oxysporum is one of the most important pathogenic fungi with a broad range of plant and animal hosts. The first key step of its infection cycle is conidial germination, but there is limited information available on the molecular events supporting this process. We show here that germination is accompanied by a sharp decrease in expression of FoSir5, an ortholog of the human lysine deacetylase SIRT5. We observe that FoSir5 decrotonylates a subunit of the fungal pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (FoDLAT) at K148, resulting in inhibition of the activity of the complex in mitochondria. Moreover, FoSir5 decrotonylates histone H3K18, leading to a downregulation of transcripts encoding enzymes of aerobic respiration pathways. Thus, the activity of FoSir5 coordinates regulation in different organelles to steer metabolic flux through respiration. As ATP content is positively related to fungal germination, we propose that FoSir5 negatively modulates conidial germination in F. oxysporum through its metabolic impact. These findings provide insights into the multifaceted roles of decrotonylation, catalysed by FoSir5, that support conidial germination in F. oxysporum.