Abstract
The soil-borne fungus Verticillium dahliae is a devastating pathogen responsible for substantial losses in cotton production. This study elucidated the key functions of VdARO2 and VdCPC1 in fungal pathogenicity. VdARO2 encodes a Chalmoic acid synthase involved in the biosynthesis of aromatic amino acids, while VdCPC1 is a central regulator of amino acid starvation response and reveals a key regulatory relationship between VdARO2 and VdCPC1 to jointly control fungal virulence. We demonstrate that both genes are essential for growth, conidiation, and microsclerotia formation in V. dahliae. The VdΔaro2 mutant exhibited severe developmental defects and a complete loss of microsclerotia production, accompanied by widespread transcriptional dysregulation. Disruption of VdARO2 significantly upregulated VdCPC1, triggering a compensatory starvation response that nonetheless failed to restore pathogenicity. Silencing VdCPC1 similarly impaired fungal development and attenuated virulence. Our findings reveal a crucial regulatory axis in which VdARO2 and VdCPC1 coordinate metabolic homeostasis and stress adaptation to facilitate host colonization, thereby identifying promising targets for the control of Verticillium wilt.