Vesicular trafficking plays a crucial role in protein localization and movement, signal transduction, and multiple developmental processes in eukaryotic cells. Vesicle fusion is the final and key step in vesicle-mediated trafficking and mainly relies on SNAREs (soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein receptors), the regulators including SM (Sec1/Munc18) family proteins, Rab GTPases and exocyst subunits. Verticillium dahliae is a widespread soil fungus that causes disruptive vascular diseases on a wide range of plants. To date, no genes involved in vesicular fusion process have been identified and characterized in V. dahliae. The recent publication of the draft genome sequence of V. dahliae allowed us to conduct a genome-wide identification, phylogeny and expression profile of genes encoding vesicular fusion components. Using compared genomics and phylogenetic methods, we identified 44 genes encoding vesicle fusion components in the V. dahliae genome. According to the structural features of their encoded proteins, the 44 V. dahliae genes were classified into 22 SNAREs (6 Qa-, 4 Qb-, 6 Qc-, 1 Qbc- and 5 R-types), 4 SM family proteins, 10 Rab GTPases and 8 exocyst proteins. Based on phylogeny and motif constitution analysis, orthologs of vesicle fusion component in filamentous fungi were generally clustered together into the same subclasses with well-supported bootstrap values. Analysis of the expression profiles of these genes indicated that many of them are significantly differentially expressed during vegetative growth and microsclerotia formation in V. dahliae. The analysis show that many components of vesicle fusion are well conserved in filamentous fungi and indicate that vesicle fusion plays a critical role in microsclerotia formation of smoke tree wilt fungus V. dahliae. The genome-wide identification and expression analysis of components involved in vesicle fusion should facilitate research in this gene family and give new insights toward elucidating their functions in growth, development and pathogenesis of V. dahliae.
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