Transcriptional control of fungal cell cycle and cellular events by Fkh2, a forkhead transcription factor in an insect pathogen.

ABSTRACT: Transcriptional control of the cell cycle by forkhead (Fkh) transcription factors is likely associated with fungal adaptation to host and environment. Here we show that Fkh2, an ortholog of yeast Fkh1/2, orchestrates cell cycle and many cellular events of Beauveria bassiana, a filamentous fungal insect pathogen. Deletion of Fkh2 in B. bassiana resulted in dramatic down-regulation of the cyclin-B gene cluster and hence altered cell cycle (longer G2/M and S, but shorter G0/G1, phases) in unicellular blastospores. Consequently, ΔFkh2 produced twice as many, but smaller, blastospores than wild-type under submerged conditions, and formed denser septa and shorter/broader cells in aberrantly branched hyphae. In these hyphae, clustered genes required for septation and conidiation were remarkedly u

SUBMITTER: Wang JJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4424799 | biostudies-literature | 2015 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature