Autophagy, a conserved cellular recycling process, plays a crucial role in maintaining homeostasis under stress conditions. It also regulates the development and virulence of numerous filamentous fungi. In this study, we investigated the specific function of ATG8, a reliable autophagic marker, in the opportunistic pathogen Aspergillus flavus . To investigate the role of atg8 in A. flavus , the deletion and complemented mutants of atg8 were generated according to the homologous recombination principle. Deletion of atg8 showed a significant decrease in conidiation, spore germination, and sclerotia formation compared to the WT and atg8 C strains. Additionally, aflatoxin production was found severely impaired in the ∆ atg8 mutant. The stress assays demonstrated that ATG8 was important for A. flavus response to oxidative stress. The fluorescence microscopy showed increased levels of reactive oxygen species in the ∆ atg8 mutant cells, and the transcriptional result also indicated that genes related to the antioxidant system were significantly reduced in the ∆ atg8 mutant. We further found that ATG8 participated in regulating the pathogenicity of A. flavus on crop seeds. These results revealed the biological role of ATG8 in A. flavus , which might provide a potential target for the control of A. flavus and AFB1 biosynthesis.
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