The fungal-specific transcription factor Vdpf influences conidia production, melanized microsclerotia formation and pathogenicity in Verticillium dahliae.

ABSTRACT: Verticillium dahliae is a soil-borne, hemibiotrophic phytopathogenic fungus that causes wilting in crop plants. Here, we constructed a random insertional mutant library using Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation to study the pathogenicity and regulatory mechanisms of V. dahliae. The fungal-specific transcription factor-encoding gene Vdpf was shown to be associated with vegetative growth and virulence, with the highest transcript expression occurring during conidia formation in the V991 strain. The deletion mutants (ΔVdpf) and insertion mutants (IMΔVdpf) produced fewer conidia than did the wild-type (WT) fungi, which contributed to the reduced virulence. Unlike the WT, the complemented strains and IMΔVdpf, ΔVdpf formed swollen, thick-walled and hyaline mycelium rather than mela

SUBMITTER: Luo X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6638448 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature