Comparative transcriptomics of growth metabolism and virulence reveal distinct morphogenic profiles of yeast-like cells and hyphae of the fungus Metarhizium rileyi

•Yeast-like cells from solid and liquid media have similar virulence.•Yeast-like cells of Metarhizium rileyi express specific genes related to virulence.•Yeast-like cells grown on solid medium express unique genes.•Few up-regulated orthologous genes in common between M. rileyi and M. anisopliae yeast-like cells.•Many unknown protein-coding genes up-regulated in the yeast-like cells from solid medium.