Project description:Insect pathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana in one of the best studied insect biocontrol fungus, which infects insects by cuticle penetration. After breaking the cuticles, the fungus will propagate in insect hemocoel and kill insect hosts. It has also been found that the mycelia of B. bassiana can penetrate plant tissues to reach insect inside plant, e.g. corn borer (Ostrinia furnacalis), but do not cause damage to plants. The mechanism of fungal physiological plasticity is poorly understood. To accompany our genome sequencing work of B. bassiana strain ARSEF 2860, fungal transcriptional responses to different niches were studied using an Illumina RNA_seq technique. To examine fungal response to insect cuticle, conidia were inoculated on locust hind wings for 24 hours before used for RNA extraction. To evaluate fungal adaptation to insect hemocole, the fifth instar larvae of cotton bollworms were injected with spore suspension and fungal cells isolated by centrifugation in a step gradient buffer. To unveil the mechanism of interaction with plants, the fungus was grown in corn root exudates for 24 hours. After RNA sequencing, around three million tags were acquired for each sample and fungal transcriptional profiles were compared. Unveiling gene differential expression patterns when the insect biocontrol fungus Beauveria bassiana grown in insect hemocoel, corn root exudates and on insect cuticles.
