Fungi produce millions of clonal asexual conidia (spores) that remain dormant until favourable conditions occur. Conidia contain abundant stable messenger RNAs but the mechanisms underlying the production of these transcripts and their composition and functions are unknown. Here, we report that the conidia of three filamentous fungal species (Aspergillus nidulans, Aspergillus fumigatus, Talaromyces marneffei) are transcriptionally active and can synthesize mRNAs. We find that transcription in fully developed conidia is modulated in response to changes in the environment until conidia leave the developmental structure. Environment-specific transcriptional responses can alter conidial content (mRNAs, proteins and secondary metabolites) and change gene expression when dormancy is broken. Conidial transcription affects the fitness and capabilities of fungal cells after germination, including stress and antifungal drug (azole) resistance, mycotoxin and secondary metabolite production and virulence. The transcriptional variation that we characterize in fungal conidia explains how genetically identical conidia mature into phenotypically variable conidia. We find that fungal conidia prepare for the future by synthesizing and storing transcripts according to environmental conditions present before dormancy.

真菌产生数百万个克隆无性分生孢子（孢子），这些分生孢子在有利条件出现之前一直处于休眠状态。分生孢子含有丰富的稳定信使 RNA，但这些转录物产生的机制及其组成和功能尚不清楚。在这里，我们报告了三种丝状真菌（构巢曲霉、烟曲霉、马尔尼菲踝节菌）的分生孢子) 具有转录活性，可以合成 mRNA。我们发现完全发育的分生孢子中的转录会根据环境的变化进行调节，直到分生孢子离开发育结构。环境特异性转录反应可以改变分生孢子的含量（mRNA、蛋白质和次级代谢产物）并在休眠被打破时改变基因表达。分生孢子转录会影响发芽后真菌细胞的适应性和能力，包括应激和抗真菌药物（唑类）抗性、霉菌毒素和次级代谢产物的产生和毒力。我们在真菌分生孢子中表征的转录变异解释了基因相同的分生孢子如何成熟为表型可变的分生孢子。