Comparative transcriptomics of growth metabolism and virulence reveal distinct morphogenic profiles of yeast-like cells and hyphae of the fungus Metarhizium rileyi

Abstract

Metarhizium rileyiis an entomopathogenic fungus with a narrow host range which distinguishes it from other Metarhiziumspecies with broad host ranges. This species is also unique because the initial yeast-like growth on solid media is only observed in liquid culture in other Metharizium species. A lack of knowledge about the metabolism and genetic signatures of M. rileyiduring this yeast-like phase on solid and in liquid media is a bottleneck for its large-scale production as a commercial biocontrol agent.In this study wefound that M. rileyiyeast-like cells produced on solid medium infected and killed the important insect pest Spodoptera frugiperda with comparable efficiency as yeast-like cells grown in liquid medium. Secondly, we used comparative transcriptomic analysis to investigate theactive genes and genomic signatures of the M. rileyi yeast-like morphotypes produced on solid and in liquid media. Yeast-like cells grown in liquid medium had upregulated genes relating specifically to signal transduction andparticular membrane transporters. Thirdly, we compared the transcriptomic profiles of yeast-like phases of M. rileyi with those of M. anisopliae. The yeast-like phase of M. rileyi grown on solid medium upregulated unique genes not found in otherMetarhiziumspecies including specific membrane proteins and several virulence factors. Orthologous genes associated with heat shock protein, iron permease, membrane proteins and key virulence traits (e.g. collagen-like protein Mcl1) were upregulated in both species. Comparative transcriptome analyses of gene expression showed more differences than similarities between M. anisopliae and M. rileyi yeast-like cells.