VdCYC8, Encoding CYC8 Glucose Repression Mediator Protein, Is Required for Microsclerotia Formation and Full Virulence in Verticillium dahliae.

Verticillium dahliae is the primary causal agent for Verticillium wilt disease on a diverse array of economically important crops, including cotton. In previous research, we obtained the low-pathogenicity mutant T286 from the T-DNA insertional mutant library of the highly virulent isolate Vd080 derived from cotton. In this study, the target disrupted gene VdCYC8 was identified by TAIL-PCR, encoding a homolog of CYC8 proteins involved in glucose repression. The deletion mutant ΔCYC8 exhibited several developmental deficiencies, including reduced microsclerotia formation, reduced sporulation, and slower growth. Moreover, compared with the wild type strain Vd080, the pathogenicity of strain ΔCYC8 was significantly decreased on cotton seedlings. However, the complementary mutants ΔCYC8-C led to restoration of the wild type phenotype or near wild type levels of virulence on cotton. Interestingly, pathogenicity of the strains was correlated with VdCYC8 gene expression levels in complemented mutants. Gene expression analyses in the wild type strain Vd080, the ΔCYC8-45 strain, and complemented strain ΔCYC8-C26 indicated that VdCYC8 regulates the transcription levels of several genes in V. dahliae that have roles in melanin and production.