The protein AltA1, also known as ALTA1, is a member of the AltA1 family, a group of structural proteins found in fungi [1]. AltA1 has been identified in various fungal species, including Ascochyta lentis, Botrytis cinerea, Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. vasinfectum, and Venturia inaequalis [2][3][4]. AltA1 has been implicated as a major allergen in Alternaria species [2]. Additionally, AltA1 has been identified as an effector protein in *Venturia inaequalis*, the causal agent of apple scab, with a significant increase in expression [4]. Furthermore, AltA1 has been associated with the pathophysiology of fungal plant pathogens and is believed to play a role in the secretion of extracellular vesicles [3].
The AltA1 family, to which the protein AltA1 belongs, has been characterized as a group of non-canonical pathogen-associated molecular pattern (PAMP) proteins, suggesting a potential role in the hypersensitive response in plants [1]. Moreover, a study on fungal orphan candidate effectors revealed that AltA1, along with other families of proteins, displayed a decrease in frustration index with residue surface exposure, indicating a potential structural landscape and evolvability of these proteins [5].
References:
[1] J. T, T. Leisen, S. Ce, J. Müller, F. Mahler, F. Sommeret al., "The secreted hypersensitive response inducing protein 1 frombotrytis cinereadisplays non-canonical pamp-activity",, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.12.16.423131
[2] R. Lee, L. Farfan-Caceres, J. Debler, A. Williams, R. Syme, & B. Henares, "Reference genome assembly for australianascochyta lentisisolate al4", G3 Genes|genome|genetics, vol. 11, no. 2, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1093/g3journal/jkab006
[3] D. Garcia-Ceron, C. Dawson, P. Faou, M. Bleackley, & M. Anderson, "Size‐exclusion chromatography allows the isolation of evs from the filamentous fungal plant pathogen fusarium oxysporum f. sp. vasinfectum (fov)", Proteomics, vol. 21, no. 13-14, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1002/pmic.202000240
[4] Y. Khajuria, B. Akhoon, S. Kaul, & M. Dhar, "Secretomic insights into the pathophysiology of venturia inaequalis: the causative agent of scab, a devastating apple tree disease", Pathogens, vol. 12, no. 1, p. 66, 2022. https://doi.org/10.3390/pathogens12010066
[5] M. Derbyshire and S. Raffaele, "Surface frustration re-patterning underlies the structural landscape and evolvability of fungal orphan candidate effectors",, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.01.06.522876
