The Autophagy-Related Protein ATG8 Orchestrates Asexual Development and AFB1 Biosynthesis in .

Autophagy, a conserved cellular recycling process, plays a crucial role in maintaining homeostasis under stress conditions. It also regulates the development and virulence of numerous filamentous fungi. In this study, we investigated the specific function of ATG8, a reliable autophagic marker, in the opportunistic pathogen . To investigate the role of in , the deletion and complemented mutants of were generated according to the homologous recombination principle. Deletion of showed a significant decrease in conidiation, spore germination, and sclerotia formation compared to the WT and strains. Additionally, aflatoxin production was found severely impaired in the ∆ mutant. The stress assays demonstrated that ATG8 was important for response to oxidative stress. The fluorescence microscopy showed increased levels of reactive oxygen species in the ∆ mutant cells, and the transcriptional result also indicated that genes related to the antioxidant system were significantly reduced in the ∆ mutant. We further found that ATG8 participated in regulating the pathogenicity of on crop seeds. These results revealed the biological role of ATG8 in , which might provide a potential target for the control of and AFB1 biosynthesis.