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Aspergillus flavus Exploits Maize Kernels Using an “Orphan” Secondary Metabolite Cluster

Aspergillus flavus is a saprophytic cosmopolitan fungus, capable of infecting crops both pre- and post-harvest and exploiting different secondary metabolites, including aflatoxins. Aflatoxins are known carcinogens to animals and humans, but display no clear effect in host plants such as maize. In a...

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Autores principales: Antiga, Ludovica, La Starza, Sonia Roberta, Miccoli, Cecilia, D’Angeli, Simone, Scala, Valeria, Zaccaria, Marco, Shu, Xiaomei, Obrian, Gregory, Beccaccioli, Marzia, Payne, Gary A., Reverberi, Massimo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7663156/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33153018
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms21218213
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author Antiga, Ludovica
La Starza, Sonia Roberta
Miccoli, Cecilia
D’Angeli, Simone
Scala, Valeria
Zaccaria, Marco
Shu, Xiaomei
Obrian, Gregory
Beccaccioli, Marzia
Payne, Gary A.
Reverberi, Massimo
author_facet Antiga, Ludovica
La Starza, Sonia Roberta
Miccoli, Cecilia
D’Angeli, Simone
Scala, Valeria
Zaccaria, Marco
Shu, Xiaomei
Obrian, Gregory
Beccaccioli, Marzia
Payne, Gary A.
Reverberi, Massimo
author_sort Antiga, Ludovica
collection PubMed
description Aspergillus flavus is a saprophytic cosmopolitan fungus, capable of infecting crops both pre- and post-harvest and exploiting different secondary metabolites, including aflatoxins. Aflatoxins are known carcinogens to animals and humans, but display no clear effect in host plants such as maize. In a previous study, we mined the genome of A. flavus to identify secondary metabolite clusters putatively involving the pathogenesis process in maize. We now focus on cluster 32, encoding for fungal effectors such as salicylate hydroxylase (SalOH), and necrosis- and ethylene-inducing proteins (npp1 domain protein) whose expression is triggered upon kernel contact. In order to understand the role of this genetic cluster in maize kernel infection, mutants of A. flavus, impaired or enhanced in specific functions (e.g., cluster 32 overexpression), were studied for their ability to cause disease. Within this frame, we conducted histological and histochemical experiments to verify the expression of specific genes within the cluster (e.g., SalOH, npp1), the production of salicylate, and the presence of its dehydroxylated form. Results suggest that the initial phase of fungal infection (2 days) of the living tissues of maize kernels (e.g., aleuron) coincides with a significant increase of fungal effectors such as SalOH and Npp1 that appear to be instrumental in eluding host defences and colonising the starch-enriched tissues, and therefore suggest a role of cluster 32 to the onset of infection.
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spelling pubmed-76631562020-11-14 Aspergillus flavus Exploits Maize Kernels Using an “Orphan” Secondary Metabolite Cluster Antiga, Ludovica La Starza, Sonia Roberta Miccoli, Cecilia D’Angeli, Simone Scala, Valeria Zaccaria, Marco Shu, Xiaomei Obrian, Gregory Beccaccioli, Marzia Payne, Gary A. Reverberi, Massimo Int J Mol Sci Article Aspergillus flavus is a saprophytic cosmopolitan fungus, capable of infecting crops both pre- and post-harvest and exploiting different secondary metabolites, including aflatoxins. Aflatoxins are known carcinogens to animals and humans, but display no clear effect in host plants such as maize. In a previous study, we mined the genome of A. flavus to identify secondary metabolite clusters putatively involving the pathogenesis process in maize. We now focus on cluster 32, encoding for fungal effectors such as salicylate hydroxylase (SalOH), and necrosis- and ethylene-inducing proteins (npp1 domain protein) whose expression is triggered upon kernel contact. In order to understand the role of this genetic cluster in maize kernel infection, mutants of A. flavus, impaired or enhanced in specific functions (e.g., cluster 32 overexpression), were studied for their ability to cause disease. Within this frame, we conducted histological and histochemical experiments to verify the expression of specific genes within the cluster (e.g., SalOH, npp1), the production of salicylate, and the presence of its dehydroxylated form. Results suggest that the initial phase of fungal infection (2 days) of the living tissues of maize kernels (e.g., aleuron) coincides with a significant increase of fungal effectors such as SalOH and Npp1 that appear to be instrumental in eluding host defences and colonising the starch-enriched tissues, and therefore suggest a role of cluster 32 to the onset of infection. MDPI 2020-11-03 /pmc/articles/PMC7663156/ /pubmed/33153018 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms21218213 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Antiga, Ludovica
La Starza, Sonia Roberta
Miccoli, Cecilia
D’Angeli, Simone
Scala, Valeria
Zaccaria, Marco
Shu, Xiaomei
Obrian, Gregory
Beccaccioli, Marzia
Payne, Gary A.
Reverberi, Massimo
Aspergillus flavus Exploits Maize Kernels Using an “Orphan” Secondary Metabolite Cluster
title Aspergillus flavus Exploits Maize Kernels Using an “Orphan” Secondary Metabolite Cluster
title_full Aspergillus flavus Exploits Maize Kernels Using an “Orphan” Secondary Metabolite Cluster
title_fullStr Aspergillus flavus Exploits Maize Kernels Using an “Orphan” Secondary Metabolite Cluster
title_full_unstemmed Aspergillus flavus Exploits Maize Kernels Using an “Orphan” Secondary Metabolite Cluster
title_short Aspergillus flavus Exploits Maize Kernels Using an “Orphan” Secondary Metabolite Cluster
title_sort aspergillus flavus exploits maize kernels using an “orphan” secondary metabolite cluster
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7663156/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33153018
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms21218213
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