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ARS Home » Southeast Area » New Orleans, Louisiana » Southern Regional Research Center » Food and Feed Safety Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #207027
Title: Comparative Genomics in Identifying Aflatoxin Biosynthetic Genes

Author
item Yu, Jiujiang
item NIERMAN, WILLIAM - TIGR ROCKVILLE MD
item MACHIDA, MASAYUKI - AIST JAPAN
item BENNETT, JOAN - RUTGERS UNIV
item Campbell, Bruce
item Bhatnagar, Deepak
item Cleveland, Thomas
item PAYNE, GARY - NCSU RALEIGH

Submitted to: American Society for Microbiology Annual Meeting
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/1/2007
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Aspergillus flavus produces the most toxic and the most carcinogenic mycotoxins, aflatoxin B1 and B2. In order to solve aflatoxin contamination of food commodities, A. flavus genomics tools for identification of genes involved in aflatoxin biosynthesis have been employed. A. flavus Expressed Sequence Tags (EST's) and whole genome sequencing have been completed. Microarrays containing all of the predicted genes in A. flavus have been constructed for gene profiling. Groups of genes that are potentially involved in aflatoxin production have been profiled through EST and microarray strategies. Preliminary annotation of the sequence revealed that there are about 12,000 genes in the A. flavus genome. Many genes in the genome, which potentially encode for enzymes involved in secondary metabolite production, such as polyketide synthases, non-ribosomal peptide synthases and cytochrome P450 monooxigenases, have been identified. Comparative analysis of A. flavus genome with food grade industrial fermentation organism A. oryzae can help understanding the mechanism of aflatoxin biosynthesis and solving the problem of aflatoxin contamination. Results of comparative genome hybridization will be discussed.