Author
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Desjardins, Anne |
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Hohn, Thomas |
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Submitted to: Molecular Plant Microbe Interactions
Publication Type: Review Article Publication Acceptance Date: 1/6/1997 Publication Date: N/A Citation: N/A Interpretive Summary: Technical Abstract: The study of fungal toxins in plant pathogenesis has made remarkable progress within the last decade. Prior to the mid 1980's there was indeed a long history of research on fungal toxins. Fungal cultures provided a bewildering array of low molecular weight metabolites that demonstrated toxicity to plants. But although it was easy to demonstrate that fungal cultures contained toxic substances, it proved far more difficult to establish their causal role in plant disease. Critical analysis of the role of toxins in pathogenesis had to wait for the development of laboratory methods to specifically eliminate a toxin from a biological system. The development of DNA-mediated transformation of fungal species during the 1980's provided the essential tool to rigorously test the role of toxins, and other factors, in plant pathogenesis. In this paper we will discuss recent progress toward applying toxin gene disruption to testing the role of mycotoxins in plant pathogenesis. Mycotoxins are defined as low molecular weight fungal metabolites that occur in agricultural products and are toxic to vertebrates. A wide variety of fungal metabolites are both mycotoxic (toxic to animals) and phytotoxic (toxic to plants). This paper will focus on four classes of mycotoxins of continuing importance in animal and human diseases worldwide- ergot alkaloids, aflatoxins, trichothecenes, and fumonisins. |
