Functional analysis of MaPom1 gene in Metarhizium acridum

Pests and diseases in agriculture have become a global problem, and the development of biological pesticides is of great significance to agricultural production. Insecticidal fungal pesticides have the advantages of not easily making the host resistant, environmentally friendly, and sustainable control. They have great application potential. However, due to their slow insecticidal efficiency, susceptibility to environmental impacts, high production costs, and unstable control effects, they are insufficient. Severely hinder its wide application. Therefore, strengthening the study of the molecular mechanism of entomopathogenic fungi in the process of spore production, stress resistance, infection and pathogenicity is of great significance to fully tap its biological control potential. In the early stage, our research group used the model insect pathogenic fungus Metarhizium acridum as the material to screen and obtained a batch of genes that may be related to the conidiation pattern of filamentous fungi. Among them, the dual-specific kinase Pom1 gene is up-regulated expression in the microcycle conidiation. Studies have reported that the dual-specific kinase Pom1 can phosphorylate tyrosine and serine/threonine in the substrate, and play an important regulatory role in cell division and polar growth. In order to explore the function of the kinase Pom1 in Metarhizium acridum, this study used knockout and recovery strategies to explore the role of Pom1 in the growth, sporulation, stress resistance, and pathogenic process of Metarhizium anisopliae. The mechanism by which genes participate in the regulation of conidiation has been initially explored.

农业有害生物灾害已成为全球性问题，生物农药的研发对农业生产具有重要意义。杀虫真菌农药具有不易使宿主产生抗药性、环境友好且可实现持续防控的优势，应用潜力巨大。但由于其杀虫效率偏低、易受环境影响、生产成本较高且防控效果不稳定，存在诸多不足，严重制约了其大规模推广应用。因此，深入研究虫生真菌（entomopathogenic fungi）在产孢、抗逆、侵染及致病过程中的分子机制，对充分挖掘其生物防控潜力具有重要意义。前期本课题组以模式虫生真菌蝗绿僵菌（Metarhizium acridum）为研究材料，通过筛选获得了一批与丝状真菌产孢模式相关的候选基因，其中双特异性激酶Pom1基因在微循环产孢过程中呈上调表达。已有研究表明，双特异性激酶Pom1可对底物的酪氨酸与丝氨酸/苏氨酸位点进行磷酸化修饰，在细胞分裂与极性生长过程中发挥重要调控作用。为探究该激酶Pom1在蝗绿僵菌中的生物学功能，本研究通过基因敲除与回补策略，解析其在金龟子绿僵菌（Metarhizium anisopliae）生长、产孢、抗逆及致病过程中的作用，初步阐明了该基因调控产孢的分子机制。