Filamentous fungi conduct two types of conidiation, typical conidiation from mycelia and microcycle conidiation (MC). Fungal conidiation can shift between the two patterns, which involved a large number of genes in the regulation of this process. In this study, we investigated the role of a dipeptidase gene
pepdA
in conidiation pattern shift in
Metarhizium acridum
, which is upregulated in MC pattern compared to typical conidiation. Results showed that disruption of the
pepdA
resulted in a shift of conidiation pattern from MC to typical conidiation. Metabolomic analyses of amino acids showed that the levels of 19 amino acids significantly changed in Δ
pepdA
mutant. The defect of MC in Δ
pepdA
can be rescued when nonpolar amino acids, α-alanine, β-alanine or proline, were added into
s
ucrose
y
east extract
a
gar (SYA) medium. Digital gene expression profiling analysis revealed that PEPDA mediated transcription of sets of genes which were involved in hyphal growth and development, sporulation, cell division, and amino acid metabolism. Our results demonstrated that PEPDA played important roles in the regulation of MC by manipulating the levels of amino acids in
M. acridum
.
IMPORTANCE
Conidia, as the asexual propagules in many fungi, are start and end of fungal lifecycle. In entomopathogenic fungi, conidia are the infective form essential for their pathogenicity. Filamentous fungi conduct two types of conidiation, typical conidiation from mycelia and microcycle conidiation. The mechanisms of the shift between the two conidiation patterns remain to be elucidated. In this study, we demonstrated that the dipeptidase PEPDA, a key enzyme from the insect-pathogenic fungus
Metarhizium acridum
for the hydrolysis of dipeptides, is associated with a shift of conidiation pattern. The conidiation pattern of the Δ
pepdA
mutant was restored when supplemented with the nonpolar amino acids rather than polar amino acids. Therefore, this report highlights that the dipeptidase PEPDA regulates MC by manipulating the levels of amino acids in
M. acridum.