o plants was accompanied by decreased levels of beauvericin. However, little information is available on how beauvericin production is regulated PubMed ID:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19770275 in FOC. The findings from this study that the mutants FoSlt2, FoMkk2 and FoBck1 showed decreased expression of fusaric acid and beauvericin biosynthetic genes, and reduced production of fusaric acid present new members to the list of MAP kinases regulated toxic secondary metabolites in fungal pathogens. In summary, this study has characterized three MAP kinase genes of FOC, including the MAPK gene FoSlt2, the MAPKK gene FoMkk2 and the MAPKKK gene FoBck1. Consistent with previous notion that MAPK-MAPKK-MAPKKK from a signaling cascade, the deletion mutants of three MAP kinase genes showed almost identical phenotypes except that only FoSlt2 is involved in siderophore biosynthesis. Given the important roles of MAP kinases in regulation of various physiological traits and virulence determinants in FOC, including cell wall integrity, anti-oxidation enzymes, and biosynthetic genes encoding siderophore, phytotoxins fusaric acid and beauvericin, it is not surprisingly that null mutation of any of the three MAP kinase genes could lead to substantially attenuated fungal virulence. In summary, we have conducted detailed investigation on the biological functions regulated by MAP kinases in FOC, and our results showed that the MAP kinases play vital roles in regulation of various physiological traits and virulence determinants in FOC. A further understanding on this important signaling pathway and regulatory mechanisms may facilitate the LY-411575 biological activity development of new control strategies against this devastating fungal pathogen. Materials and Methods Fungal strains, media and culture conditions F. oxysporum f. sp. cubense race 4 strain XJZ2 was used as wild PubMed ID:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19768759 type for fungal transformation and gene knockout experiments as described. Fungal strains were stored as microconidial suspensions at -80C with 20% glycerol. Potato dextrose agar, MM, yeast extract peptone dextrose liquid medium and YPG liquid medium were used for characterization of vegetative growth and asexual development. To determine fungal growth rates, freshly obtained microconidia were spotted 16 / 24 Roles of MAP Kinases in F. oxysporum f. sp. cubense onto MM plates, and MM plates were used as control. Growth rate was assayed by measuring the colony diameters after incubation for 6 days at 28C. Conidiation was quantified 
in static or shaken liquid cultures as described. Construction of plasmids and fungal transformation For disruption of the targeted genes, plasmids pCT74-FoSlt2-KO, pCT74-FoMkk2-KO and pCT74-FoBck1-KO were generated. The upstream and downstream fragments of corresponding targeted genes were amplified from genomic DNA of WT and were sequenced. For FoSlt2 gene, upstream fragment using primer pair F1/R1, downstream fragment using primer pair F2/R2. For FoMkk2 gene, upstream fragment using primer pair F4/R4, downstream fragment using primer pair F5/R5. For FoBck1 gene, upstream fragment using primer pair F6/R6, downstream fragment using primer pair F7/R7. The SpeI-ClaI double-digested FoSlt2, FoMkk2 and FoBck1 upstream fragments were inserted into the same sites on pCT74 vector to generate plasmids pCT74-FoSlt2-up, pCT74-FoMkk2-up and pCT74-FoBck1-up, respectively. Then the ApaI-KpnI double-digested FoSlt2, FoBck1 downstream fragments, and the XhoI-BglII doubledigested FoMkk2 downstream fragment were inserted into the same clone sites of correspo