title: Unveiling equal importance of two 14-3-3 proteins for morphogenesis, conidiation, stress tolerance and virulence of an insect pathogen.
abstract: Two conserved 14-3-3 proteins orthologous to Saccharomyces cerevisiae Bmh1/2 are poorly understood in filamentous fungi. Here we show that Bmh1 and Bmh2 contribute equally to the fundamental biology and physiology of Beauveria bassiana by targeting many sets of proteins/enzymes. Single Bmh deletion caused similar upregulation of another. Excellent knockdown (∼91%) expressions of Bmh1 in ΔBmh2 and Bmh2 in ΔBmh1 resulted in equally more severe multiphenotypic defects than the single deletions, including G2 /M transition, blastospore size, carbon/nitrogen utilization, conidiation, germination and conidial tolerances to high osmolarity, oxidation, cell wall stress, high temperature and UV-B irradiation. All the deletion and deletion/knockdown mutants showed similar defects in blastospore yield and density, hyphal septation and cell size, hyphal responses to most chemical stresses and virulence. All the defects were evident with altered transcripts of phenotype-related genes and well restored by each Bmh complementation. Our Bmh1- and Bmh2-specific transcriptomes generated under osmotic and oxidative stresses revealed up to 6% genes differentially expressed by at least twofold in the fungal genome. Many of those were greatly depressed or co-depressed in ΔBmh1 and ΔBmh2. Our findings provide a thorough insight into the functions and complementary effects of the two 14-3-3 proteins in the filamentous entomopathogen.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Microbiology, College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310058, China; Key Laboratory of Systems Microbial Biotechnology, Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin, 300308, China.
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Jin-Gen
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Sheng-Hua
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Ying
authors.forename: Juan-Juan
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Wen-Liang
authors.initials: WL
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Chao-Guang
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.forename: Ming-Guang
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Feng
mesh_terms: D048948:14-3-3 Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D000818:Animals; D052982:Beauveria / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D005656:Fungal Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D025301:Hyphae / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism / Q000472:pathogenicity; D009024:Morphogenesis; D009036:Moths / Q000382:microbiology*; D018384:Oxidative Stress; D010572:Pest Control, Biological; D013172:Spores, Fungal / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000472:pathogenicity; D014774:Virulence
chemical_list: D048948:14-3-3 Proteins; D005656:Fungal Proteins