Hyphal Growth and Conidia Germination Are Induced by Phytohormones in the Root Colonizing and Plant Growth Promoting Fungus .

Beneficial associations are very important for plants and soil-dwelling microorganisms in different ecological niches, where communication by chemical signals is relevant. Among the chemical signals, the release of phytohormones by plants is important to establish beneficial associations with fungi, and a recently described association is that of the entomopathogenic ascomycete fungus with plants. Here, we evaluated the effect of four different phytohormones, synthetic strigolactone (GR24), sorgolactone (SorL), 3-indolacetic acid (IAA) and gibberellic acid (GA), on the fungus strain HA11-2, where the germination rate and hyphal elongation were determined at three different times.

"Sleepers" and "Creepers": A Theoretical Study of Colony Polymorphisms in the Fungus Related to Insect Pathogenicity and Plant Rhizosphere Colonization.

Different strains of exhibit a range of polymorphisms in colony phenotypes. These phenotypes range from highly conidiating colonies to colonies that produce relatively more mycelia and few conidia. These different phenotypes are exhibited in infected insects in the soil.