House fly (Musca domestica) males are highly attracted to dead female flies infected with the entomopathogenic fungus Entomophthora muscae. Because males orient to the larger abdomen of infected flies, both visual and chemical cues may be responsible for the heightened attraction to infected flies. Our behavioral assays demonstrated that the attraction is sex-specific-males were attracted more ...

Entomophthoromycota is one of six major phylogenetic lineages among the former phylum Zygomycota. These early terrestrial fungi share evolutionarily ancestral characters such as coenocytic mycelium and gametangiogamy as a sexual process resulting in zygospore formation. Previous molecular studies have shown the monophyly of Entomophthoromycota, thus justifying raising the taxonomic status of th...

The discovery of novel secretome proteins can add to our understanding of host-pathogen interactions. Here we report a rich diversity of secreted proteins from the interaction between grain aphids (host, insect order Hemiptera) and fungi of the order Entomophthorales (insect pathogens). The proteins were identified using a unique method unbiased by known sequences or functions to screen a cDNA ...