Regulation of conidiation, polarity growth, and pathogenicity by MrSte12 transcription factor in entomopathogenic fungus, Metarhizium rileyi

Metarhizium rileyi, a well-known filamentous biocontrol fungus, is the main pathogen of numerous field pests, especially noctuid pests. To explore the potential factors involved in the fungal pathogenicity, MrSte12, an important and conserved functional transcription factor in mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway was carried out by functional analysis. Homologous recombination was used to disrupt the MrSte12 gene in M. rileyi. The deletant fungal strain exhibited malformed hyphae and impaired conidiogenesis, and conidia could not be collected from △MrSte12 in vitro towards SMAY medium. Although conidia could be collected again supplemented with KCl within SMAY medium, the conidial germination, growth and stress tolerance were much weaker compared with that in WT. Additionally, △MrSte12 showed a dramatic reduction in virulence in intra-hemolymph injections and no pathogenicity in topical inoculations against noctuid pests, which is due to the failure of appressorium formation. Moreover, the content of chitin and β-1, 3-glucan in cell wall significantly reduced in mutant conidia. These results indicate that the MrSte12 gene markedly contributes to invasive growth and conidiation, as well as the major pathogenicity in M. rileyi.