Skip to main content
ARS Home » Midwest Area » Peoria, Illinois » National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research » Mycotoxin Prevention and Applied Microbiology Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #344699
Research Project: Genomic and Metabolomic Approaches for Detection and Control of Fusarium, Fumonisins and Other Mycotoxins on Corn

Location: Mycotoxin Prevention and Applied Microbiology Research

Title: Distribution of mycotoxin biosynthetic genes in 200 Fusarium genomes

Author
item Proctor, Robert
item Kim, Hye-Seon
item Brown, Daren
item Busman, Mark
item Kelly, Amy
item O Donnell, Kerry
item Stanley, April
item Vaughan, Martha
item ALEXANDER, NANCY - Retired ARS Employee
item VILANI, ALESSANDRA - Institute Of Food Science And Technolgoy

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/15/2017
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Fusarium is a species-rich genus of fungi that causes disease on most crop plants and produces diverse secondary metabolites (SMs), including some of the mycotoxins of greatest concern to food and feed safety. To determine the potential SM diversity within Fusarium as well as the distribution and evolution of mycotoxin biosynthetic gene clusters, we have assessed the presence and absence of SM biosynthetic gene clusters in genome sequences of >200 isolates representing 22 multi-species lineages (species complexes) and four single-species lineages of Fusarium. The results indicate that collectively Fusarium species have the genetic potential to produce hundreds of structurally distinct families of SMs, but that there is tremendous variation in distribution of SM clusters among species and lineages. Some clusters occur in one or a few lineages, while others occur in most lineages. Also, some SM clusters occur in most or all species within lineages, while others occur more sporadically in fewer species. Phylogenetic analyses suggest that differences in distribution have resulted from variation in vertical inheritance, horizontal transfer, and loss of clusters during the evolutionary diversification of Fusarium. Functional characterization of selected biosynthetic genes in Fusarium and other fungi indicate that variability in production of analogs of the same mycotoxin family can arise through acquisition, loss, and changes in functions of genes in the corresponding gene cluster. These findings add to a growing body of evidence that qualitative differences in mycotoxin production is affected by variation in presence and absence of clusters as well as variation in content and functions of genes within clusters.