Expression Profiling of Non-Aflatoxigenic Aspergillus parasiticus Mutants Obtained by 5-Azacytosine Treatment or Serial Mycelial Transfer

Toxins

Jeffrey R. Wilkinson²  Shubha P. Kale¹  Deepak Bhatnagar²  Jiujiang Yu² 

[1] Department of Biology, 1 Drexel Dr., Box 85B, Xavier University of Louisiana, New Orleans, LA 70125, USA;Southern Regional Research Center, ARS/USDA, 1100 Robert E. Lee Blvd., New Orleans, LA 70124, USA;

关键词: aflatoxin;    microarray;    5-azacytidine;    Aspergillus parasiticus;    secondary metabolism;    fluffy phenotype;   

DOI  :  10.3390/toxins3080932

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Aflatoxins are carcinogenic secondary metabolites produced by the fungi Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus. Previous studies found that repeated serial mycelial transfer or treatment of A. parasiticus with 5-azacytidine produced colonies with a fluffy phenotype and inability to produce aflatoxins. To understand how these treatments affect expression of genes involved in aflatoxin production and development, we carried out expressed sequence tag (EST)-based microarray assays to identify genes in treated clones that are differentially expressed compared to the wild-type. Expression of 183 genes was significantly dysregulated. Of these, 38 had at least two-fold or lower expression compared to the untreated control and only two had two-fold or higher expression. The most frequent change was downregulation of genes predicted to encode membrane-bound proteins. Based on this result we hypothesize that the treatments cause changes in the structure of cellular and organelle membranes that prevent normal development and aflatoxin biosynthesis.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2011 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.