液体诱导产生且作为活性成分的莱氏绿僵菌微菌核具有易生产、抗逆耐贮的优点，证实极性菌丝是其形成的前体，但其发育过程中调控细胞分化的机理尚未明确。前期工作发现调控菌体形态发生的APSES转录因子(StuA、Swi6)和调节蛋白基因(KilA、Xbp)在微菌核初始形成时分别上、下调表达。本项目拟开展莱氏绿僵菌形态发生过程中APSES类型蛋白的功能研究，分析菌体形态发生时基因表达谱变化和蛋白亚细胞定位。通过构建基因缺失/回复、超表达菌株，研究各突变体菌株在菌体形态发生时表型变化，解析微菌核发育过程中APSES转录因子调控的通路基因和调节蛋白如何参与调控。研究结果将阐述APSES类型蛋白在菌体形态发生时的生物学功能以及协同调控关系，不仅揭示微菌核发育过程中细胞分化的分子调控机理，进而完善微菌核发育分子机理，有助于进一步促进微菌核的产业化，而且对其他丝状真菌微菌核的形成也具有重要的参考价值。

In preliminary research, the microsclerotia of Metarhizium rileyi, a well-known environmentally friendly dimorphic entomogenous fungus, successfully induced in liquid amended medium and exhibiting excellent facility fermentation, stress resistance and storage stability, could be used as a mycoinsecticide for insect control. Furthermore, we had investigated the molecular mechanism of microsclerotia formation and found that the polar hypha was the foundation for microsclerotia formation. However, little is known about the molecular mechanism of the cell differentiation during microsclerotia development. Nevertheless, we found that the genes of APSES type proteins that regulate morphogenesis, including two APSES family transcription factors (StuA and Swi6) and two APSES type DNA-binding domain proteins (KilA and Xbp) as transcription regulator, were up-regulated and down-regulated, respectively, during microsclerotia differentiation in the comparative transcriptomic analysis. In the present study, we will investigate the function of APSES type proteins during the morphogenesis, including microsclerotia formation, yeast-hypha switching, and conidial development. The functions of genes and proteins will be examined by analyzing the expression patterns and subcellular location. We will analysis the phenotype change through constructing disruption, complementation and overexpression strains. Furthermore, we will investigate and identify the functional genes as the downstream targets of the transcription factor and the function of transcription regulators during microsclerotia development. These researches will clarify the mechanism of the cell differentiation during M. rileyi microsclerotia formation. These results will complete the molecular mechanism of M. rileyi microsclerotia formation and promote the commercial scale-up and cost-effective of liquid fermentation of this entomogenous fungus. Furthermore, the results will also provide scientific parameter for other filamentous fungi to complete microsclerotia production.