Transcription Factor Regulates Conidiation Pattern Shift Under the Control of MaH1 Through Homeobox Domain in

The growth pattern of filamentous fungi can switch between hyphal radial polar growth and non-polar yeast-like cell growth depending on the environmental conditions. Asexual conidiation after radial polar growth is called normal conidiation (NC), while yeast-like cell growth is called microcycle conidiation (MC). Previous research found that the disruption of in led to a conidiation shift from NC to MC. However, the regulation mechanism is not clear. Here, we found , an homologous gene in , was greatly downregulated when was disrupted (Δ). Loss of also caused a conidiation shift from NC to MC on a nutrient-rich medium. Yeast one-hybrid (Y1H) and electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) showed that MaH1 could bind to the promoter region of the gene. Disrupting the interaction between MaH1 and the promoter region of significantly downregulated the transcription level of , and the overexpression of in Δ could restore NC from MC of Δ. Our findings demonstrated that played a role in maintaining the NC pattern directly under the control of MaH1, which revealed the molecular mechanisms that regulated the conidiation pattern shift in filamentous fungi for the first time.