title: Identification of new galactose oxidase genes in Fusarium spp.
abstract: Galactose oxidase (GO) converts galactose to an aldehyde and has several biotechnological applications, including cancer diagnosis. It is mainly produced by Fusarium austroamericanum but is also produced by Fusarium acuminatum and by isolates of the Fusarium graminearum and Gibberella fujikuroi complexes. The F. austroamericanum GO gaoA gene has been cloned, but the GO genes from other secreting species have not been characterized. Problems associated with the F. austroamericanum GO such as high pI and low catalytic efficiency and thermostability, and the difficult purification process makes the search for homologous genes attractive. In this work, the GO genes from Fusarium verticillioides and Fusarium subglutinans, two species of the G. fujikuroi complex, were cloned, sequenced, and analyzed. New GO genes were found in databases and were used to construct a phylogenetic tree, which revealed the existence of three orthologous lineages of GO genes in Fusarium spp. In addition, RT-PCR analyses revealed that the new GO cloned gene may be endogenously expressed in F. subglutinans but not in F. verticillioides, in the used culture conditions.
authors.affiliation: Departament of Biochemistry, Universidade Estadual de Maringá, Maringá, PR, Brazil.
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Aparecido Cordeiro
authors.forename: Carla
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bertechini Faria
authors.forename: Ione
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Parra Barbosa-Tessmann
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D004271:DNA, Fungal / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D005670:Fusarium / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics*; D005692:Galactose Oxidase / Q000235:genetics*; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D005800:Genes, Fungal; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
chemical_list: D004271:DNA, Fungal; D005692:Galactose Oxidase