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Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only Publication Acceptance Date: 3/22/2014 Publication Date: 3/22/2014 Citation: Vaughan, M.M., McCormick, S.P. 2014. Influence of volatile organic compounds on Fusarium graminearum mycotoxin production [abstract]. Interpretive Summary: Technical Abstract: Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are involved in a diverse range of ecological interactions. Due to their low molecular weight, lipophilic nature, and high vapor pressure at ambient temperatures, they can serve as airborne signaling molecules that are capable of mediating inter and intraspecies communications. VOCs emitted by plants can directly contribute to the emitter’s disease resistance, enhance the resistance of neighboring plants, and influence sporulation of colonizing fungal species. Correspondingly, fungal VOCs can alter the growth and metabolism of other fungal species and plants. Interestingly, production of a VOC, trichodiene, is the first step in the biosynthesis of Fusarium trichothecene mycotoxins. Despite the close association of this volatile with in planta trichothecene contaminants and the function of these mycotoxins as a virulence factor which enhances disease development, not much is known about the potential function of trichodiene as a volatile signal. Governed by the hypothesis that VOCs play a role in the interaction between wheat and fungus Fusarium graminearum, the major causal agent of Fusarium head blight disease in wheat, we are investigating the influence of VOCs in mycotoxin production. |
