*3.3. Hydrophobin*

The highest amounts of hydrophobin recorded in BBAL1, BBLD5, BBLD1, BBSI, BBBL1, BBLN1, BBLN2, HSAL and MASA, respectively (Table 4), while the least amounts of hydrophobin were in TSRT, ASAI and TSAH (Table 4). Entomopathogenic fungi achieve the nutrients at host bodies through the cuticle, so the first step of pathogenesis is adhesion to the integument. Therefore, the external surface of conidia has a fundamental protein with a hydrophobic rodlet layer that connects to the insect epicuticle [6]. Hydrophobins are a class of unique fungal proteins important in sporulation, pathogenesis, thermotolerant, growth and development of fungi [43,55,56]. Some studies reported that inhibition of hydrophobin gene expression negatively affected pigmentation, conidiation, hydrophobicity and virulence of entomopathogenic fungi [24,55,57]. Our findings revealed that the lesser amount of hydrophobin could be one of the reasons for no mortality of some isolates against the larvae of *C. suppressalis*. In fact, the proper attachment of the conidia to the host cuticle and subsequent germinations are the primarily important steps to effective infection by entomopathogenic fungi. The higher amounts of hydrophobin were obtained in the isolates with the more virulence-like BBLN1 and BBLN2. Although the higher amounts of hydrophobin were also found in HSAL with the least virulence, it should be noted that hydrophobin is not necessarily the main factor in the virulence of a fungus, but it only shows the better interaction with the host cuticle.


**Table 4.** Amount of the hydrophobin (mg/mL) in the collected entomopathogenic fungi from the larvae of *Chilo suppressalis*.

Note: Statistical differences are shown by different letters (Tukey's test, *p* ≤ 0.05).
