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Fig. 5 | IMA Fungus

Fig. 5

From: The genus Entomophthora: bringing the insect destroyers into the twenty-first century

Fig. 5

Schematic illustration of the life-cycle of Entomophthora fungi. The life-cycle of all Entomophthora species follows the same basic outline: 1 Infectious spores land on and penetrate the cuticle (right) to obtain access to the hemolymph where they assume protoplastic (i.e., cell-wall-less) morphology. 2 Protoplastic fungal cells proliferate in the host body cavity using the fat body and freely circulating nutrients as an energy source. 3 When host resources are depleted, the fungus forms a cell wall and proceeds through one of two routes: in the majority of cases, the fungus elicits a series of end-of-life behaviors (e.g., summit disease) that position the host for continued transmission (i.e., immediate infection of a new host via sporulation); alternatively, the fungus forms environmentally persistent, dormant structures (i.e., resting spores) and the host exhibits alternative moribund behavior (e.g., returning to the soil). Continued transmission (represented by the solid black line) has been observed for all species, while resting spore formation (dashed white line) has only been described for some; sporulation and formation of resting spores are mutually exclusive in a single host. 4 In the route of continued transmission, the fungus sporulates, releasing infectious conidia from spore-launching structures (conidiophores) into the environment where they can encounter new hosts; primary conidia are launched directly from the dead host, while secondary conidia form when primary conidia land on non-host substrates. Photos: C. Elya

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