Fig. 1

VdZFP1 and VdZFP2 with variable subcellular localization upstream of Verticillium dahliae VdPKS9 are conserved in filamentous fungi. A The putative VdPKS9 gene cluster in V. dahliae. A sketch map of gene cluster covering eight upstream genes of VdPKS9 was constructed based on genome sequencing and annotation results of V. dahliae AT13 strain. Each arrow represents the direction of gene expression. Scale bar = 2000 bp. B The C2H2-type zinc finger motifs of VdZFP1 and VdZFP2. The protein sequences were predicted by multiple pipelines of SMART, InterPro, and Pfam and zinc finger motifs were labeled in purple. Scale bar = 100 amino acids. C Phylogenetic analysis of VdZFP1 and VdZFP2 in V. dahliae and their homologs from other melanin-producing fungi. The protein sequences were downloaded from NCBI database. MEGA 7.0 software was used to construct the phylogenetic tree based on the neighbor-joining method. The reliabilities indicated at the branch nodes were evaluated using 1000 bootstrap replications. D Subcellular localization of VdZFP1 and VdZFP2 in V. dahliae. The VdZFP1- and VdZFP2-GFP fragments were introduced into the genome of WT strain, respectively and the transformants were cultured on PDA medium (or supplemented with 0.8 M NaCl) for 4 days. The GFP signals were observed by fluorescence microscopy. Scale bar = 20 μm