Expression profiling of non-aflatoxigenic Aspergillus parasiticus mutants obtained by 5-azacytosine treatment or serial mycelial transfer.
Toxins (Basel), 2011/08;3(8):932-48.
Wilkinson JR[1], Kale SP, Bhatnagar D, Yu J, Ehrlich KC
Affiliations
PMID: 22069749
Impact factor: 5.075
Abstract
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.
Keywords: fluffy phenotype; secondary metabolism; 5-azacytidine; Aspergillus parasiticus; aflatoxin; microarray
MeSH terms
Aflatoxins; Aspergillus; Cloning, Molecular; Cytosine; Down-Regulation; Expressed Sequence Tags; Gene Expression Profiling; Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal; Multigene Family; Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; Phenotype; Transcription, Genetic
More resources
Full text:
Europe PubMed Central; PubMed Central
EndNote: Download