Figure 4.
Virulence and related cellular events of Δflb mutants (DM) and control (WT and CM) strains in B. bassiana. (A,B) LT50s (d) estimated by fitting the time-mortality 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), respectively. (C) Conidial adherence to locust hind wing cuticle assessed as percent ratios of post-wash versus pre-wash counts with respect to the WT standard. (D) Conidial hydrophobicity (HPB) index quantified in an aqueous-organic system. (E) Microscopic images (scale bar: 20 μm) for the status of hyphal bodies (HBs; slender cells) and host hemocytes (spherical or subspherical cells) in the hemolymph samples taken from surviving larvae 120 h post-NCI and 72 h post-CBI. (F,G) Concentrations of hyphal bodies in the hemolymph samples taken over the time after NCI and CBI, respectively. * p < 0.05 in Tukey’s HSD tests. Error bars: SDs of the means from three independent replicates.