DNM1, a Dynamin-Related Protein That Contributes to Endocytosis and Peroxisome Fission, Is Required for the Vegetative Growth, Sporulation, and Virulence of Metarhizium .

Although dynamins and dynamin-related proteins (DRPs), a large GTPase superfamily, are involved in the budding of transport vesicles and division of organelles in eukaryotic cells, the function of these proteins in entomopathogenic fungi has not been reported to date. Here, DNM1, a DRP in , was characterized using gene disruption and complementation strategies. Mutant phenotype assays showed that the Δ strain displayed increased defects in radial growth (∼24%) and conidial production (∼42%) compared to those of the wild type (WT), and reduced conidiation levels were accompanied by the repression of several key conidiation-related genes, including , , and Additionally, mutant bioassays revealed that disruption of impaired the virulence (both topical inoculation and injection) of in the insect Further analysis demonstrated that deleting in fungi suppressed the transcriptional levels of several virulence genes in the insect hemocoel. Moreover, we found that DNM1 colocalized with peroxisomes and mitochondria. Importantly, disruption of abolished normal fungal endocytosis, resulting in significantly decreased numbers of, as well as morphological changes in, peroxisomes. These findings indicate that deletion of causes significant changes in the vegetative growth, sporulation, and virulence of due to changes in cell function and peroxisomes. was found to be involved in fungal development and virulence, mediated peroxisomal fission, and normal endocytosis. This finding provides new insights into the cellular processes and pathogenicity in entomopathogenic fungi.