Pathogenicity and growth of Metarhizium anisopliae stably transformed to benomyl resistance

The insect pathogenic hyphomycete Metarhizium anisopliae was transformed to benomyl resistance using pBENA3, a plasmid containing the benA3 allele from Aspergillus nidulans . The transformation rate was 9 transformants/50 mu g DNA/2 x 10 super(6) viable protoplasts. Southern hybridization analyses indicated that the plasmid integrated by nonhomologous recombination at multiple loci. The sites of integration differed among transformants. The transformants were pathogenic to the hornworm, Manduca sexta), producing both appressoria and the cuticle-degrading enzyme, chymoelastase, in the presence of 50 mu g/ml of benomyl.