Abstract

Fusarium verticillioides is a filamentous fungus known to infect corn and produce toxins called fumonisins, resulting in crop losses around the globe. Our lab previously showed that an F. verticillioides strain unable to produce the disaccharide trehalose is not only less pathogenic to corn than the wild‐type fungus but also unable to synthesize fumonisins. We are exploring the origins of the observed reduction in pathogenicity of this trehalose‐deficient strain. To test whether cell wall integrity of this strain is compromised, we measured the effects of cell wall perturbation reagents on colony morphology, radial growth, and germination kinetics. Both Congo Red and Calcofluor‐white have a greater effect on the trehalose‐deficient strain than on wild type. Interestingly, Congo Red causes significant hyphal clumping in the trehalose‐deficient strain. A comparison of the effects of phenolic plant defense compounds (caffeic or vanillic acid) on growth of the two strains is also reported.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.

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