Functional Characterization of , a Gene Coding an Aspartic Acid Protease in .

Aspartic proteases (APs), hydrolases with aspartic acid residues as catalytic active sites, are closely associated with processes such as plant growth and development and fungal and bacterial pathogenesis. is the dominant pathogenic fungus that causes Fusarium head blight (FHB) in wheat. However, the relationship of APs to the growth, development, and pathogenesis of . is not clear. Therefore, we selected the gene, whose function annotation is aspartate protease, for further study. In this study, was found to contain a conserved structural domain and signal peptide sequence of aspartic acid protease and was therefore named . The function of in was investigated by constructing the knockout and complementation mutants of this gene. The results showed that with respect to the wild type (PH-1), the knockout mutant showed a significant reduction in mycelial growth, asexual spore production, and sexual spore formation, highlighting the key role of in the growth and development of . In addition, the mutants showed a significant reduction in the virulence and accumulation level of deoxynivalenol (DON) content on maize whiskers, wheat germ sheaths, and wheat ears. DON, as a key factor of virulence, plays an important role in the infection of wheat ears, suggesting that is involved in the regulation of pathogenicity by affecting the accumulation of the DON toxin. had a significant effect on the ability of to utilize various sugars, especially arabinose. In response to the stress, hydrogen peroxide inhibited the growth of the mutant most significantly, indicating the important function of in the strain's response to environmental stress. Finally, plays a key role in the regulation of growth and development, pathogenicity, and environmental stress response.