Superoxide Initiates the Hyphal Differentiation to Microsclerotia Formation of Macrophomina phaseolina

Abstract

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) have been proposed as the key stimulus for sclerotia development by studying fungal systems such as Sclerotinia sclerotiorum , and the theory has been adapted for microsclerotia development in Verticillium dahliae and Nomuraea rileyi . While many studies agreed on the association between (micro)sclerotia development and the ROS pathway, which ROS type, superoxide ( O 2 − ) or hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ), plays a major role in initiating hyphal differentiation to the (micro)sclerotia formation remains controversial, and literature supporting either O 2 − or H 2 O 2 can be found.