Genomic perspectives on the evolution of fungal entomopathogenicity in Beauveria bassiana

Guohua Xiao,S. Ying,Peng Zheng,Zheng-Liang Wang,Siwei Zhang,Xue-Qin Xie,Yanfang Shang,R. S. St. Leger,Guo-Ping Zhao,Chengshu Wang,M. Feng

Published 2012 in Scientific Reports

ABSTRACT

The ascomycete fungus Beauveria bassiana is a pathogen of hundreds of insect species and is commercially produced as an environmentally friendly mycoinsecticide. We sequenced the genome of B. bassiana and a phylogenomic analysis confirmed that ascomycete entomopathogenicity is polyphyletic, but also revealed convergent evolution to insect pathogenicity. We also found many species-specific virulence genes and gene family expansions and contractions that correlate with host ranges and pathogenic strategies. These include B. bassiana having many more bacterial-like toxins (suggesting an unsuspected potential for oral toxicity) and effector-type proteins. The genome also revealed that B. bassiana resembles the closely related Cordyceps militaris in being heterothallic, although its sexual stage is rarely observed. A high throughput RNA-seq transcriptomic analysis revealed that B. bassiana could sense and adapt to different environmental niches by activating well-defined gene sets. The information from this study will facilitate further development of B. bassiana as a cost-effective mycoinsecticide.

PUBLICATION RECORD

CITATION MAP

EXTRACTION MAP

CLAIMS

  • No claims are published for this paper.

CONCEPTS

  • No concepts are published for this paper.

REFERENCES

Showing 1-82 of 82 references · Page 1 of 1

CITED BY

Showing 1-100 of 637 citing papers · Page 1 of 7