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- Title
WetA and VosA are distinct regulators of conidiation capacity, conidial quality, and biological control potential of a fungal insect pathogen.
- Authors
Li, Fang; Shi, Han-Qiang; Ying, Sheng-Hua; Feng, Ming-Guang
- Abstract
Many filamentous fungi produce only conidia for dispersal and survival in vitro or in vivo. Here, we show that the developmental regulator WetA and the velvet protein VosA are not only required for conidial maturation but indispensable for conidiation in Beauveria bassiana, a filamentous entomopathogen. Deletion of wetA or vosA resulted in more than 90 % transcriptional depression of brlA and abaA, two activator genes in the central developmental pathway, during the critical period of conidiophore development and conidiation. Consequently, Δ wetA and Δ vosA strains lost 98 % in and 88 % of their conidiation capacities under optimal culture conditions, respectively. The conidia of Δ wetA showed more defective features than those of Δ vosA, including smaller size, lesser density, lower hydrophobicity, and impaired cell walls although intracellular trehalose content decreased more in the aging culture of Δ vosA than of Δ wetA. As a result, conidial sensitivity to cell wall perturbation was elevated in Δ wetA but unaffected in Δ vosA, which produced conidia more sensitive to the oxidant menadione and the wet-heat stress at 45 °C. Both deletion mutants showed similar defects in conidial tolerance to high osmolarity or UV-B irradiation but no change in conidial sensitivity to the other oxidant HO or the fungicide carbendazim. Moreover, Δ wetA lost more virulence to Galleria mellonella larvae than Δ vosA. All these phenotypical changes were restored by either wetA or vosA complementation. Taken together, WetA and VosA are indispensable for asexual development and contribute differentially to conidial quality and hence the biological control potential of B. bassiana against insect pests.
- Subjects
CONIDIATION; FUNGI imperfecti; PHYSIOLOGICAL control systems; PATHOGENIC microorganisms; GENETIC transcription
- Publication
Applied Microbiology & Biotechnology, 2015, Vol 99, Issue 23, p10069
- ISSN
0175-7598
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s00253-015-6823-7