Skip to main content
ARS Home » Southeast Area » Athens, Georgia » U.S. National Poultry Research Center » Toxicology & Mycotoxin Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #332382
Research Project: Eliminating Fusarium Mycotoxin Contamination of Corn by Targeting Fungal Mechanisms and Adaptations Conferring Fitness in Corn and Toxicology and Toxinology Studies of Mycotoxins

Location: Toxicology & Mycotoxin Research

Title: He said, she said: mRNA sequencing identifies specificity in metabolic response to Bacillus mojavensis lipopeptides in Fusarium verticillioides

Author
item BLACUTT, ALEX - University Of Georgia
item Gold, Scott

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/15/2016
Publication Date: 3/15/2016
Citation: Blacutt, A., Gold, S.E. 2016. He said, she said: mRNA sequencing identifies specificity in metabolic response to Bacillus mojavensis lipopeptides in Fusarium verticillioides. International Symposium of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Irapuato, Mexico, May 12-14, 2015

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Fusarium verticillioides is a mycotoxigenic fungus capable of both pathogenic and asymptomatic endophytic lifestyles in maize; such intimate association renders efficient chemical control cost-prohibitive. Bacillus mojavensis RRC101 is a maize endophyte demonstrating both in vitro antagonism of F. verticillioides and in planta reductions of disease and mycotoxin accumulation, the former confirmed to be through production of lipopeptide antibiotics. Although both RRC101 surfactins and fengycins induce increased mycotoxin accumulation in plate assays, only fengycins are antagonistic, resulting in hyphal distortion, violent lysis and pigment accumulation indicative of a stress response. Preliminary analysis of RNA sequencing data has identified common functions in transcripts enriched under fengycin antagonism, particularly structural proteins and hydrolytic enzymes. Genes responsible for secondary metabolism, specifically antibiotic production, are also upregulated under lipopeptide challenge. These transcriptional data suggest that previously observed lipopeptide response specificity in F. verticillioides reflects only a portion of the underlying cross-kingdom “conversation” between maize endophytes.