Conserved Roles of MonA in Fungal Growth and Development in Species.

MonA is a subunit of a guanine nucleotide exchange factor that is important for vacuole passing and autophagy processes in eukaryotes. In this study, we characterized the function of MonA, an orthologue of Mon1, in the model fungus and a toxigenic fungus . In , the absence of led to decreased fungal growth, reduced asexual reproduction, and defective cleistothecia production. In addition, deletion mutants exhibited decreased spore viability, had reduced trehalose contents in conidia, and were sensitive to thermal stress. In , deletion of caused decreased fungal growth and defective production of asexual spores and sclerotia structures. Moreover, the absence of affected vacuole morphology in both species. Taken together, these results indicate that MonA plays conserved roles in controlling fungal growth, development and vacuole morphology in and .