Mutation of AREA affects growth, sporulation, nitrogen regulation, and pathogenicity in Colletotrichum gloeosporioides.

The GATA transcription factor AreA is a global nitrogen regulator that restricts the utilization of complex and poor nitrogen sources in the presence of good nitrogen sources in microorganisms. In this study, we report the biological function of an AreA homolog (the CgareA gene) in the fruit postharvest pathogen Colletotrichum gloeosporioides. Targeted gene deletion mutants of areA exhibited significant reductions in vegetative growth, increases in conidia production, and slight decreases in conidial germination rates. Quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis revealed that the expression of AreA was highly induced under nitrogen-limiting conditions. Moreover, compared to wild-type and complemented strains, nitrogen metabolism-related genes were misregulated in ΔareA mutant strains. Pathogenicity assays indicated that the virulence of ΔareA mutant strains were affected by the nitrogen content, but not the carbon content, of fruit hosts. Taken together, our results indicate that CgareA plays a critical role in fungal development, conidia production, regulation of nitrogen metabolism and virulence in Colletotrichum gloeosporioides.