title: Genotypic and phenotypic versatility of Aspergillus flavus during maize exploitation.
abstract: Aspergillus flavus is a cosmopolitan fungus able to respond to external stimuli and to shift both its trophic behaviour and the production of secondary metabolites, including that of the carcinogen aflatoxin (AF). To better understand the adaptability of this fungus, we examined genetic and phenotypic responses within the fungus when grown under four conditions that mimic different ecological niches ranging from saprophytic growth to parasitism. Global transcription changes were observed in both primary and secondary metabolism in response to these conditions, particularly in secondary metabolism where transcription of nearly half of the predicted secondary metabolite clusters changed in response to the trophic states of the fungus. The greatest transcriptional change was found between saprophytic and parasitic growth, which resulted in expression changes in over 800 genes in A. flavus. The fungus also responded to growth conditions, putatively by adaptive changes in conidia, resulting in differences in their ability to utilize carbon sources. We also examined tolerance of A. flavus to oxidative stress and found that growth and secondary metabolism were altered in a superoxide dismutase (sod) mutant and an alkyl-hydroperoxide reductase (ahp) mutant of A. flavus. Data presented in this study show a multifaceted response of A. flavus to its environment and suggest that oxidative stress and secondary metabolism are important in the ecology of this fungus, notably in its interaction with host plant and in relation to changes in its lifestyle (i.e. saprobic to pathogenic).
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia Ambientale, Università La Sapienza, Roma, Italy. massimo.reverberi@uniroma1.it
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Reverberi
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Punelli
authors.forename: Valeria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Scala
authors.forename: Marzia
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Scarpari
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Uva
authors.forename: Wieslawa I
authors.initials: WI
authors.lastname: Mentzen
authors.forename: Andrea L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Dolezal
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Woloshuk
authors.forename: Flavia
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pinzari
authors.forename: Anna A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Fabbri
authors.forename: Corrado
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fanelli
authors.forename: Gary A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Payne
mesh_terms: D000348:Aflatoxins / Q000096:biosynthesis; D001231:Aspergillus flavus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D004734:Energy Metabolism; D015966:Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal; D056726:Genetic Association Studies; D005838:Genotype; D055442:Metabolome; D058977:Molecular Sequence Annotation; D018384:Oxidative Stress; D010641:Phenotype; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D015398:Signal Transduction; D059467:Transcriptome; D003313:Zea mays / Q000382:microbiology*
chemical_list: D000348:Aflatoxins
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