Fig 1.
Illumination of fungal fights on insect body surfaces for host infection.
(A) Illuminated removal of fungal spores off the Drosophila body surface via self-grooming. (B) Divergent survival of termite (C. formosanus) workers after the topical infection with the spore suspensions of M. robertsii (5 × 105 conidial/ml in 0.05% Tween 20) and being placed in different forms. Social: the treated termites were placed in groups (10 per Petri dish in 6 cm diameter); individual: the treated termites were individually placed in dishes (one per dish). The termites treated with the Tween and placed either socially or individually were used as CKs. (C) Illuminated removal of fungal spores off the termite body surface via allogrooming. (D) Schematic of the Metarhizium spore responses against cuticular microbes on insect body surface. Divers bacterial cells are cartooned, while the big-sized cells represent other fungal cells. (E) The cadavers of the wax moth larvae killed and uniformly mycosed by Mr (left) and Bb (right) after individual infections. (F) The representative cadavers of the wax moth larvae killed and mycosed by both Mr and Bb after topical infection with the mixed spore suspension (at a ratio of spores: Mr:Bb = 1:9) [26]. Panels A, C, and D were created with BioRender.com and not to scale. Panel B was generated based on our bioassay data using the program GraphPad. Images shown in Panels E and F were taken during our previous study [26]. ABs, antibiotics; Bb, B. bassiana; AMPs, antimicrobial peptides; AP, appressorium; CKs, controls; CO, conidium; Mr, M. robertsii.