## 5 Conclusions  
In conclusion, the findings of this study suggest that _tps1_ plays a regulatory role in the expression of terpene synthases, which is crucial for understanding the biosynthetic mechanism of sesquiterpene compounds. Additionally, it appears that _tps1_ genes also modulate the expression of the pyruvate metabolic pathway genes. Furthermore, while the wild-type _T. atroviride_ HB20111 strain produces sesquiterpene compounds with antifungal activity, their production may not be essential for this activity. This implies that the antifungal activity of the fungus may result from a combination of multiple metabolites or other factors working together rather than being solely dependent on one specific metabolite. Moreover, these experimental findings have the potential to serve as a foundation for genetic modification in _T. atroviride_ HB20111. Therefore, it is suggested that _tps1_ in HB20111 has broader effects beyond a direct involvement in sesquiterpene compound production or the synthesis of metabolic precursors, potentially influencing gene expression related to plant growth and development as well as the stress response; however, further research is needed to confirm these hypotheses.  
The following supporting information can be downloaded at [[https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/jof10070485/s1](https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/jof10070485/s1)]([https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/jof10070485/s1](https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/jof10070485/s1)), Figure S1: pMD18T-_Atps1-hyg_ deletion vector plasmid map; Table S1: Primers used in this study; Table S2: Terenpoids types and their relative abundances in _T. atrovide_ HB2011(WT), _tps1_-deletion mutant, and _tps1_-overexpression mutant.  
X.W.: data curation, investigation, writing--original draft, and writing--review and editing. W.L.: data curation, investigation, and writing--original draft. S.C.: conceptualization, data curation, investigation, supervision, and writing--review and editing. Y.W. ([PERSON]): data curation, formal analysis, and writing--original draft. Y.W. ([PERSON]): data curation, funding acquisition, resources, and writing--review and editing. J.L.: funding acquisition, project administration, visualization, and writing--review and editing. J.H.: conceptualization, methodology, validation, and writing--review and editing. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
This work was supported by Shandong Provincial Innovation Capability Promotion Project for Sci-tech Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (Project ID: 2022 TSGC2014, 2022 TSGC2370) and the Innovation Pilot Project of Integration of Science, Education, and Industry of the Shandong Academy of Sciences (International Scientific and Technology Cooperation) (grant number: 2022 GH012).  
Not applicable.  
All newly generated sequences were deposited in GenBank ([[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genbank/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genbank/)]([https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genbank/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genbank/)) (accessed on 1 May 2024)).  
We gratefully acknowledge all the colleagues who have worked on this article and the governments for their financial support.  
The authors declare that this research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as potential conflicts of interest.