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Previous studies have reported the ability of fungi to overwinter in soil or on crop debris under different environmental conditions, but how fungi adapt to chilling is still largely unknown. In this study, we have identified and characterized the RNA binding protein (RBP) (VdNop12) by screening an Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformationmediated insertional mutational library of Verticillium dahliae. We determined that this protein was essential to the pathogen for virulence on cotton plants. VdNop12 contains two tandem RNA recognition motif domains, and its orthologs are widely distributed in filamentous fungi. Mutants produced by disruption of VdNop12 showed defects in vegetative growth, conidiation and cell wall integrity. The mutant also showed an increase in sensitivity to low temperature, as compared to the wildtype and complementation strains. Yeast complementation assay showed that VdNop12 could functionally restore the growth phenotype of ΔScNop12 mutant of Saccharomyces cerevisiae at 15 C. We demonstrated that the VdNop12 is localized in the nucleus, and its loss resulted in the downregulated expression of several genes related to cAMP-PKA and MAPK pathways in V. dahliae. Our results demonstrated a crucial role of RBPs in the regulation of morphology, cold adaption, and pathogenic development in V. dahliae.

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Fusarium brachygibbosum Padwick, the causal agent of stalk rot disease, is a threat to the maize crop in China. However, the genomic information of the pathogen is not available yet. The current study presented the genomic information of F. brachygibbosum, isolated from maize. The genome size is 40.36 Mb and consisted of 12,510 genes. The GC content is 47.95%, and there are 913 predicted secretory proteins. The presented genomic data has highlighted the virulence features, plant-microbial interaction ability, genes associated with the pathogen's metabolic processes, and host-binding ability. Presented results would extend our knowledge of the pathogen and help us develop suitable disease management strategies.

Chickpea wilt is one of the major limiting factors, for low yield of chickpea. In Pakistan chickpea wilt causes 10-50% losses every year. At all concentrations, Carbendazim and Benomyl proved most effective while Acrobat was least effective in suppressing the mycilial growth of the Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceri.  However, higher concentration of Acrobat was also slightly effective. Among the plant extracts, higher concentrations of Sufaida and Neem proved to be effective while onion failed to control the colony growth of Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. ciceri at all concentrations.