Functional Characterization of AoFlbB and AoFlbD Reveals Their Roles in Sporulation and Trap Formation in Arthrobotrys oligospora
Yi Chen, Yanmei Shen, Hui Yuan, Qiyan Hu, Lihua Wei, Yuehui Li, Meichen Zhu, Jinkui Yang · 2026
Read Functional Characterization of AoFlbB and AoFlbD Reveals Their Roles in Sporulation and Trap Formation in Arthrobotrys oligospora by Yi Chen, Yanmei Shen, Hui Yuan, Qiyan Hu, Lihua Wei, Yuehui Li, Meichen Zhu, Jinkui Yang (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/PMC13515634.txt.
Description
Chen and co-authors dissect two regulator genes in a fungus that hunts worms. Their 2026 paper studies Arthrobotrys oligospora, a nematode-trapping fungus of interest for crop protection, and two sporulation regulators, AoFlbB and AoFlbD, conserved across its relatives. Deleting each gene revealed how reproduction and predation are coordinated in this organism.
Both deletions left growth nearly untouched but sharply cut spore production and changed how spores germinated, confirming positive roles in sporulation. Unexpectedly, the mutants built more traps and caught nematodes more efficiently. Each mutant also showed its own quirks: one had wrinkled cell walls, the other accumulated vesicle-like structures, sped up dye uptake, and lost some protease activity. Gene activity profiling of one mutant pointed at metabolism pathways. The authors conclude the two regulators balance making spores against making traps.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Yi Chen, Yanmei Shen, Hui Yuan, Qiyan Hu, Lihua Wei, Yuehui Li, Meichen Zhu, Jinkui Yang |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 42 KB |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |