Figure 4.

Differential roles of set2 and ash1 in host infection- and virulence-related cellular events of B. bassiana. (A) Survival trends of G. mellonella larvae after topical application (immersion) of a 10⁷ conidia/mL suspension for normal cuticle infection (NCI) and intrahemocoel injection of ~500 conidia per larva for cuticle-bypassing infection (CBI). (B) LT₅₀ (no. days) estimates made by modeling analysis of time-mortality trends. (C,D) Images (scale: 20 μm) and estimates for conidial adherence to locust hind wing cuticle. The estimates are percent ratios of post-wash counts over pre-wash counts with respect to the WT standard. (E) Images of hyphal outgrowths on the surfaces of insect cadavers 5 days post-death. (F) Biomass accumulation levels and total activities of cuticle-degrading extracellular enzymes (ECEs) and Pr1 family proteases quantified from the 3-day-old CDB-BSA cultures prepared by shaking 10⁶ conidia/mL suspensions at 25 °C. (G,H) Microscopic images (scale: 20 μm) and concentrations of hyphal bodies (HBs; arrowed) in hemolymph samples taken from the larvae surviving 72 and 96 h post-injection (hpi). (I) Biomass levels and dimorphic transition rates measured from the 3-day-old cultures incubated at 25 °C by shaking 10⁶ conidia/mL suspensions in TPB mimicking insect hemolymph. * p < 0.05 in Tukey’s HSD tests. Error bars: SDs of the means from three independent replicates.