Functional analysis of Serine/threonine protein kinase MaPsk1 in Metarhizium acridum

Due to the fact that insect pests are less resistant and are environmentally friendly, biological pesticides are expected to become alternatives to chemical pesticides in the future. Entomopathogenic fungi are biological pesticides with the most potential application in biocontrol in agriculture. However, biopesticides generally have drawbacks of long killing time and unstable control effects, which severely restrict their application in agriculture. Entomopathogenic fungi, mostly derived from Ascomycetes in the genera Metarhizium and Beauveria, have been developed as environmentally friendly alternatives to chemical pesticides for a wide range of agricultural. Therefore, exploring the mechanisms of pathogenicity, sporulation, and stress tolerance of entomopahotgenic fungi is helpful for the development of biological pesticides.Serine/threonine protein kinases are one type of important kinases. Through phosphorylation of its downstream substrates, they participate in the regulation of nutrition absorption, growth and development, and stress tolerance. In yeast, serine/threonine protein kinase Psk1 regulated the glucose application, responded to metabolism and cell integrity signals, and participates in cell growth and proliferation. Up to now, there has been no report on function of Psk1 in pathogenicity and regulation mechanisms in fungi. In this study, we explored the function of Psk1 in entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium acridum using gene disruption technique. The proteins interacted with MaPsk1 were screened and verified using yeast two-hybrid method. The signalosome complex subunit 5 (MaCsn5) was proved to interact with MaPsk1.