The fungus-specific HET domain mediates programmed cell death in Podospora anserina

Vegetative incompatibility is a programmed cell death reaction that occurs when fungal cells of unlike genotypes fuse. Genes defining vegetative incompatibility (het genes) are highly polymorphic, and most if not all incompatibility systems include a protein partner bearing the fungus-specific domain termed the HET domain. The nonallelic het-C/het-E incompatibility system is the best-characterized incompatibility system in Podospora anserina. Cell death is triggered by interaction of specific alleles of het-C, encoding a glycolipid transfer protein, and het-E, encoding a HET domain and a WD repeat domain involved in recognition. We show here that overexpression of the isolated HET domain from het-E results in cell death. This cell death is characterized by induction of autophagy, increased vacuolization, septation, and production of lipid droplets, which are hallmarks of cell death by incompatibility. In addition, the HET domain lethality is suppressed by the same mutations as vegetative incompatibility, but not by the inactivation of het-C. These results establish the HET domain as the mediator of cell death by incompatibility and lead to a modular conception of incompatibility systems whereby recognition is ensured by the variable regions of incompatibility proteins and cell death is triggered by the HET domain.