Fig 6. Effect of 500 bp C-terminal of TE deletion on virulence in the F. monophora infection mice model.

The conidia (1×10⁶) of all strains injected into the footpads of mice to infect mice. (A and B) The footpad thickness of mice were photographed and measured 3, 5, 7 and 14 days after infection. The footpad thickness of mice in Δpks1-TE-C500 group were significantly thinner than those of mice in the wild-type group and the complemented group in different stages. (C) The fungal burden of footpads was then detected. The number of CFU for the Δpks1-TE-C500 was significantly reduced compared with that of the wild-type and complemented strain at 14 days. (D) Histopathology of footpads injected with all strains at different time points (day 3, 7, and 14). In comparison with footpads injected with the wild type and complemented strain, footpads injected with the Δpks1-TE-C500 were less swollen, and the number of CFU in the tissues was significantly reduced. In addition, the number of inflammatory cells of Δpks1-TE-C500 group in the pathological tissues was decreased. All statistical analysis were performed using two-tailed t-test, and the results were statistically significant (*, P<0.05; ***, P<0.001; ****, P<0.0001).