RNA-Seq analysis of WT and BbWor1 disruption strain in beauveria bassiana

Wor1 is a conserved fungal regulatory protein that control the phenotypic switching and pathogenicity of Candida albicans.We simulated three models of Beauveria bassiana morphological transitions, including CTH (conidia to hyphae), HTC (hyphae to conidia) and BTB (blastospore to blastospore).We find that disruption of BbWor1 (an ortholog of Wor1) resulted in a distinct reduction in the time required for germination (CTH), a significant increase in hyphal growth and a decrease in the yield of conidia (HTC), indicating that BbWor1 positively controls conidia production and negatively regulates hyphal growth in conidia-hyphae switching. Meanwhile, the ΔBbWor1 prominently decreased blastospore yield, as well as shortening G0/G1 phase and prolonging G2/M phase, under the BTB model. Importantly, BbWor1 contributed to conidia-hyphae switching and blastospore propagation via different genetic pathways, and yeast one-hybrid testing demonstrated the necessity of BbWor1 to control the transcription of an allergen-like protein gene (BBA_02580), as well as a conidial wall protein gene (BBA_09998). Moreover, the dramatically weakened virulence of ΔBbWor1 was examined by immersion and injection methods. Transcriptome comparison of wild type (WT) and BbWor1 disruption type in Beauveria bassiana under three models