Skip to main content
ARS Home » Midwest Area » St. Paul, Minnesota » Cereal Disease Lab » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #353347
Research Project: Fusarium Head Blight of Cereals: Pathogen Biology, Associated Phytobiome, and Host Resistance

Location: Cereal Disease Lab

Title: The fungal myosin I is essential for Fusarium toxisome formation

Author
item TANG, GUANGFEI - Zhejiang University
item CHEN, YUN - Zhejiang University
item XU, JIN-RONG - Zhejiang University
item Kistler, Harold
item MA, ZHONGHUA - Zhejiang University

Submitted to: PLoS Pathogens
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/18/2017
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1006827

Interpretive Summary: Certain molds may infest cereal crops with harmful metabolites called mycotoxins. Mycotoxins are important risks to the health of humans and livestock. We seek to understand how these toxins are produced in grain in order to develop measures to minimize toxin contamination. This manuscript describes the cellular location of fungal enzymes which assemble the mycotoxin known as vomitoxin. This information is important for understanding how fungal metabolites are produced and how mycotoxins accumulate in grain and the environment. The study concludes that mycotoxin synthesis requires specific developmental events that may be targeted for reduction of vomitoxin synthesis. This information will be helpful to plant improvement specialists who are working to develop plants resistant to these toxins or for developing novel strategies for amelioration of the effects of these toxins.

Technical Abstract: The mycotoxin deoxynivalenol (DON) is the most frequently detected secondary metabolite produced by Fusarium graminearum and other Fusarium spp. To date, relatively few studies have addressed how mycotoxin biosynthesis occurs in fungal cells. Here we found that myosin I governs translation of DON biosynthetic enzyme Tri1 via interacting with the ribosome-associated protein FgAsc1. Moreover, the key DON biosynthetic enzymes Tri1 and Tri4 are mainly localized to the toxisomes derived from endoplasmic reticulum under toxin inducing conditions. We further found that the FgMyo1-actin cytoskeleton was involved in toxisome formation but not for the biosynthesis of another secondary metabolite tested. Taken together, these results indicate for the first time that myosin I plays critical roles in mycotoxin biosynthesis.