The Effect of Aspergillus Thermomutatus Chrysovirus 1 on the Biology of Three Aspergillus Species

This study determined the effects of chrysovirus 1 (AthCV1), isolated from on , and Protoplasts of virus-free isolates of , and were transfected with purified AthCV1 particles and the phenotype, growth and sporulation of the isogenic AthCV1-free and AthCV1-infected lines assessed at 20 °C and 37 °C and gene expression data collected at 37 °C. AthCV1-free and AthCV1-infected produced only conidia at both temperatures but more than ten-fold reduced compared to the AthCV1-infected line. Conidiation was also significantly reduced in infected lines of and at 37 °C. AthCV1-infected lines of and produced large numbers of ascospores at both temperatures, whereas the AthCV1-free line of the former did not produce ascospores. AthCV1-infected lines of all species developed sectoring phenotypes with sclerotia produced in aconidial sectors of at 37 °C. AthCV1 was detected in 18% of sclerotia produced by AthCV1-infected and 31% of ascospores from AthCV1-infected Transcriptome analysis of the naturally AthCV1-infected and the three AthCV1-transfected species showed altered gene expression as a result of AthCV1-infection. The results demonstrate that AthCV1 can infect a range of species resulting in reduced sporulation, a potentially useful attribute for a biological control agent.