Autophagy during conidiation and conidial germination in filamentous fungi

Filamentous fungi form aerial hyphoe on solid medium, and some of these differentiate into conidiophores for asexual sporulation (conidiation). In the filamentous deuteromycete, Aspergillus oryzae, aerial hyphae are formed from the foot cells and some differentiate into conidiophores, which are composed of vesicles, phialides and conidia. Recently, we isolated the yeast ATG8 gene homologue Aoatg8 from A. oryzae, and visualized autophagy by the expression of an EGFP (enhanced green fluorescent protein)-AoAtg8 fusion protein and DsRed2 protein in this fungus. Furthermore, by constructing the Aootg8 deletion and conditional mutants, we demonstrated that autophogy functions during the process of differentiation of aerial hyphae, conidiation and conidial germination in A. oryzae. Here, we discuss the contribution of autophogy towards the differentiation and germination processes in filamentous fungi.