scholarly journals The Conserved MAP Kinase MpkB Regulates Development and Sporulation without Affecting Aflatoxin Biosynthesis in Aspergillus flavus

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 289
Author(s):  
Sang-Cheol Jun ◽  
Jong-Hwa Kim ◽  
Kap-Hoon Han

In eukaryotes, the MAP kinase signaling pathway plays pivotal roles in regulating the expression of genes required for growth, development, and stress response. Here, we deleted the mpkB gene (AFLA_034170), an ortholog of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae FUS3 gene, to characterize its function in Aspergillus flavus, a cosmopolitan, pathogenic, and aflatoxin-producing fungus. Previous studies revealed that MpkB positively regulates sexual and asexual differentiation in Aspergillus nidulans. In A. flavus, mpkB deletion resulted in an approximately 60% reduction in conidia production compared to the wild type without mycelial growth defects. Moreover, the mutant produced immature and abnormal conidiophores exhibiting vesicular dome-immaturity in the conidiophore head, decreased phialide numbers, and very short stalks. Interestingly, the ΔmpkB mutant could not produce sclerotia but produced aflatoxin B1 normally. Taken together, these results suggest that the A. flavus MpkB MAP kinase positively regulates conidiation and sclerotia formation but is not involved in the production of secondary metabolites such as aflatoxin B1.

Toxins ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Tumukunde ◽  
Ding Li ◽  
Ling Qin ◽  
Yu Li ◽  
Jiaojiao Shen ◽  
...  

Aspergillus flavus is one of the fungi from the big family of Aspergillus genus and it is capable of colonizing a large number of seed/crops and living organisms such as animals and human beings. SakA (also called hogA/hog1) is an integral part of the mitogen activated protein kinase signal of the high osmolarity glycerol pathway. In this study, the AfsakA gene was deleted (∆AfsakA) then complemented (∆AfsakA::AfsakA) using homologous recombination and the osmotic stress was induced by 1.2 mol/L D-sorbital and 1.2 mol/L sodium chloride. The result showed that ∆AfsakA mutant caused a significant influence on conidial formation compared to wild-type and ∆AfsakA::AfsakA strains. It was also found that AfsakA responds to both the osmotic stress and the cell wall stress. In the absence of osmotic stress, ∆AfsakA mutant produced more sclerotia in contrast to other strains, whereas all strains failed to generate sclerotia under osmotic stress. Furthermore, the deletion of AfsakA resulted in the increase of Aflatoxin B1 production compared to other strains. The virulence assay on both maize kernel and peanut seeds showed that ∆AfsakA strain drastically produced more conidia and Aflatoxin B1 than wild-type and complementary strains. AfSakA-mCherry was located to the cytoplasm in the absence of osmotic stress, while it translocated to the nucleus upon exposure to the osmotic stimuli. This study provides new insights on the development and evaluation of aflatoxin biosynthesis and also provides better understanding on how to prevent Aspergillus infections which would be considered the first step towards the prevention of the seeds damages caused by A. flavus.


Toxins ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 391
Author(s):  
Christopher Hernandez ◽  
Laura Cadenillas ◽  
Anwar El Maghubi ◽  
Isaura Caceres ◽  
Vanessa Durrieu ◽  
...  

Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is a potent carcinogenic mycotoxin that contaminates numerous crops pre- and post-harvest. To protect foods and feeds from such toxins without resorting to pesticides, the use of plant extracts has been increasingly studied. The most interesting candidate plants are those with strong antioxidative activity because oxidation reactions may interfere with AFB1 production. The present study investigates how an aqueous extract of Mimosa tenuiflora bark affects both the growth of Aspergillus flavus and AFB1 production. The results reveal a dose-dependent inhibition of toxin synthesis with no impact on fungal growth. AFB1 inhibition is related to a down-modulation of the cluster genes of the biosynthetic pathway and especially to the two internal regulators aflR and aflS. Its strong anti-oxidative activity also allows the aqueous extract to modulate the expression of genes involved in fungal oxidative-stress response, such as msnA, mtfA, atfA, or sod1. Finally, a bio-guided fractionation of the aqueous extract demonstrates that condensed tannins play a major role in the anti-aflatoxin activity of Mimosa tenuiflora bark.


Toxins ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isaura Caceres ◽  
Selma Snini ◽  
Olivier Puel ◽  
Florence Mathieu

Crop contamination by aflatoxin B1 is a current problem in tropical and subtropical regions. In the future, this contamination risk may be expanded to European countries due to climate change. The development of alternative strategies to prevent mycotoxin contamination that further contribute to the substitution of phytopharmaceutical products are thus needed. For this, a promising method resides in the use of biocontrol agents. Several actinobacteria strains have demonstrated to effectively reduce the aflatoxin B1 concentration. Nevertheless, the molecular mechanism of action by which these biological agents reduce the mycotoxin concentration has not been determined. The aim of the present study was to test the potential use of Streptomyces roseolus as a biocontrol agent against aflatoxin B1 contamination. Co-cultures with Aspergillus flavus were conducted, and the molecular fungal response was investigated through analyzing the q-PCR expression of 65 genes encoding relevant fungal functions. Moreover, kojic and cyclopiazonic acid concentrations, as well as morphological fungal changes were also analyzed. The results demonstrated that reduced concentrations of aflatoxin B1 and kojic acid were respectively correlated with the down-regulation of the aflatoxin B1 gene cluster and kojR gene expression. Moreover, a fungal hypersporulated phenotype and a general over-expression of genes involved in fungal development were observed in the co-culture condition.


2003 ◽  
Vol 10 (4-6) ◽  
pp. 437-443 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takashi Kojima ◽  
Toshinobu Yamamoto ◽  
Masaki Murata ◽  
Mengdong Lan ◽  
Ken-ichi Takano ◽  
...  

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