Cellular development associated with induced mycotoxin synthesis in the filamentous fungus Fusarium graminearum.

Menke J, Weber J, Broz K, Kistler HC (2013) Cellular development associated with induced mycotoxin synthesis in the filamentous fungus Fusarium graminearum. PLOS One 8(5), e63077.

Abstract

Several species of the filamentous fungus Fusarium colonize plants and produce toxic small molecules that contaminate agricultural products, rendering them unsuitable for consumption. Among the most destructive of these species is F. graminearum, which causes disease in wheat and barley and often infests the grain with harmful trichothecene mycotoxins. Synthesis of these secondary metabolites is induced during plant infection or in culture in response to chemical signals. Our results show that trichothecene biosynthesis involves a complex developmental process that includes dynamic changes in cell morphology and the biogenesis of novel subcellular structures. Two cytochrome P-450 oxygenases (Tri4p and Tri1p) involved in early and late steps in trichothecene biosynthesis were tagged with fluorescent proteins and shown to co-localize to vesicles we provisionally call

Leibniz-HKI-Authors

Jakob Weber

Identifier

doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0063077

PMID: 23667578