Relationships between fungal spore morphologies and surface properties for entomopathogenic members of the general Beauveria, Metarhizium, Paecilomyces,Tolypocladium, and Verticillium

The surface properties of aerial conidia (AC) from 24 strains of entomopathogenic fungi were studied and compared using the salt-mediated aggregation and sedimentation (SAS) assay, electron microscopy, FITC-labelled lectins, and spore dimensions. Spores with rugose surfaces were hydrophobic, whereas hydrophilic spores had smooth surfaces. Correlation analysis found no link between spore dimensions and either hydrophobicity or surface carbohydrates. However, there was a strong positive correlation between spore hydrophobicity and surface carbohydrates. The three spore types of Beauveria bassiana were all shown to possess discrete surface hydrophobicities, which were also strongly linked to surface carbohydrate profiles. Various chemical treatments had pronounced effects on spore surface properties, with sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and formic acid (FA) reducing both lectin binding and surface hydrophobicity. When FA-protein extracts were separated and analysed using SDS-PAGE, only the hydrophobic spores had low molecular weight hydrophobin-like peptides that were unglycosylated and contained disulfide bonds. The strains with hydrophilic AC had much lower levels of FA-extractable protein per spore dry weight compared to their more hydrophobic counterparts. Moreover, extracts of the more hydrophobic spores tended to have greater protein:carbohydrate ratios.Key words: fungi, spores, hydrophobicity, lectins, morphology, microbial insecticides, protein.