%0 Journal Article %A Casas-Flores, Sergio %A Rios-Momberg, Mauricio %A Bibbins, Martha %A Ponce-Noyola, Patricia %A Herrera-Estrella, Alfredo %T BLR-1 and BLR-2, key regulatory elements of photoconidiation and mycelial growth in Trichoderma atroviride %D 2004 %J Microbiology, %V 150 %N 11 %P 3561-3569 %@ 1465-2080 %R https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.27346-0 %I Microbiology Society, %X In fungi, phototropism, the induction of carotenogenesis and reproductive structures, and resetting of the circadian rhythm are controlled by blue light. Trichoderma atroviride, a fungus used in biological control, sporulates in a synchronized manner following a brief pulse of blue light. Due to its apparent simplicity, this response was chosen for pursuing photoreceptor isolation. Two genes were cloned, blue-light regulators 1 and 2 (blr-1 and blr-2), similar to the Neurospora crassa white-collar 1 and 2, respectively. The BLR-1 protein has all the characteristics of a blue-light photoreceptor, whereas the structure of the deduced BLR-2 protein suggests that it interacts with BLR-1 through PAS domains to form a complex. Disruption of the corresponding genes demonstrated that they are essential for blue-light-induced conidiation. blr-1 and blr-2 were also shown to be essential for the light-induced expression of the photolyase-encoding gene (phr-1). Mechanical injury of mycelia was found to trigger conidiation of T. atroviride, a response not described previously. This response was not altered in the mutants. A novel effect of both red and blue light on mycelial growth was found involving another light receptor, which is compensated by the BLR proteins. %U https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.27346-0