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Camellia sinensis is one of the major crops grown in Taiwan and has been widely cultivated around the island. Tea leaves are prone to various fungal infections, and leaf spot is considered one of the major diseases in Taiwan tea fields. As part of a survey on fungal species causing leaf spots on tea leaves in Taiwan, 19 fungal strains morphologically similar to the genus Diaporthe were collected. ITS (internal transcribed spacer), tef1-α (translation elongation factor 1-α), tub2 (beta-tubulin), and cal (calmodulin) gene regions were used to construct phylogenetic trees and determine the evolutionary relationships among the collected strains. In total, six Diaporthe species, including one new species, Diaporthe hsinchuensis, were identified as linked with leaf spot of C. sinensis in Taiwan based on both phenotypic characters and phylogeny. These species were further characterized in terms of their pathogenicity, temperature, and pH requirements under laboratory conditions. Diaporthe tulliensis, D. passiflorae, and D. perseae were isolated from C. sinensis for the first time. Furthermore, pathogenicity tests revealed that, with wound inoculation, only D. hongkongensis was pathogenic on tea leaves. This investigation delivers the first assessment of Diaporthe taxa related to leaf spots on tea in Taiwan.
Lunapark (Lnp) is a conserved membrane protein that localizes to and stabilizes three-way junctions of the tubular ER network. In higher eukaryotes, phosphorylation of Lnp may contribute to the conversion of the ER from tubules to sheets during mitosis. Here, we report on the reconstitution of purified Lnp with phospholipids. Surprisingly, Lnp induces the formation of stacked membrane discs. Each disc is a bicelle, with Lnp sitting in the bilayer facing both directions. The interaction between bicelles is mediated by the cytosolic domains of Lnp, resulting in a constant distance between the discs. A phosphomimetic Lnp mutant shows reduced bicelle stacking. Based on these results, we propose that Lnp tethers ER membranes in vivo in a cell cycle–dependent manner. Lnp appears to be the first membrane protein that induces the formation of stacked bicelles.