ArticlePLoS pathogens2011
Insertion of an esterase gene into a specific locust pathogen (Metarhizium acridum) enables it to infect caterpillars.
Article in PLoS pathogens, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 74 citations in OpenAlex.
- Innate Immunity in Insects: The Lights and Shadows of Phenoloxidase System Activation.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Molecular phylogenetic analyses indicate recent divergence of two gryllid-specific lineages within the generalist entomopathogenic fungusMycoscience · 2025Article
- Unveiling a novel entry gate: Insect foregut as an alternative infection route for fungal entomopathogens.Innovation (Cambridge (Mass.)) · 2024Article
- AVirulence · 2023Article
- Functional Characterization of Aldehyde Dehydrogenase inMicroorganisms · 2023Article
- A life-and-death struggle: interaction of insects with entomopathogenic fungi across various infection stages.Frontiers in immunology · 2023Review
- Host-Pathogen Interactions betweenJournal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Current developments in the resistance, quality, and production of entomopathogenic fungi.World journal of microbiology & biotechnology · 2022Review
- Review
- Several Metarhizium Species Produce Ergot Alkaloids in a Condition-Specific Manner.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2020Article
- Transcriptome profiling reveals insertional mutagenesis suppressed the expression of candidate pathogenicity genes in honeybee fungal pathogen, Ascosphaera apis.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Tryptamine accumulation caused by deletion of MrMao-1 in Metarhizium genome significantly enhances insecticidal virulence.PLoS genetics · 2020Article
- RevisitingStudies in mycology · 2020Article
- Coordinated regulation of infection-related morphogenesis by the KMT2-Cre1-Hyd4 regulatory pathway to facilitate fungal infection.Science advances · 2020Article
- A fungal pathogen deploys a small silencing RNA that attenuates mosquito immunity and facilitates infection.Nature communications · 2019Article
- Highly specific host-pathogen interactions influence Metarhizium brunneum blastospore virulence against Culex quinquefasciatus larvae.Virulence · 2018Article
- The entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium robertsii communicates with the insect host Galleria mellonella during infection.Virulence · 2018Article
- Reprogramming the virulence: Insect defense molecules navigating the epigenetic landscape of Metarhizium robertsii.Virulence · 2018Article
- Insect pathogenic fungus interacts with the gut microbiota to accelerate mosquito mortality.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2017Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
An enduring theme in pathogenic microbiology is poor understanding of the mechanisms of host specificity. Metarhizium is a cosmopolitan genus of invertebrate pathogens that contains generalist species with broad host ranges such as M. robertsii (formerly known as M. anisopliae var. anisopliae) as well as specialists such as the acridid-specific grasshopper pathogen M. acridum. During growth on caterpillar (Manduca sexta) cuticle, M. robertsii up-regulates a gene (Mest1) that is absent in M. acridum and most other fungi. Disrupting M. robertsii Mest1 reduced virulence and overexpression increased virulence to caterpillars (Galleria mellonella and M. sexta), while virulence to grasshoppers (Melanoplus femurrubrum) was unaffected. When Mest1 was transferred to M. acridum under control of its native M. robertsii promoter, the transformants killed and colonized caterpillars in a similar fashion to M. robertsii. MEST1 localized exclusively to lipid droplets in M. robertsii conidia and infection structures was up-regulated during nutrient deprivation and had esterase activity against lipids with short chain fatty acids. The mobilization of stored lipids was delayed in the Mest1 disruptant mutant. Overall, our results suggest that expression of Mest1 allows rapid hydrolysis of stored lipids, and promotes germination and infection structure formation by M. robertsii during nutrient deprivation and invasion, while Mest1 expression in M. acridum broadens its host range by bypassing the regulatory signals found on natural hosts that trigger the mobilization of endogenous nutrient reserves. This study suggests that speciation in an insect pathogen could potentially be driven by host shifts resulting from changes in a single gene.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.