title: Lipids in Aspergillus flavus-maize interaction.
abstract: In some filamentous fungi, the pathways related to the oxidative stress and oxylipins production are involved both in the process of host-recognition and in the pathogenic phase. In fact, recent studies have shown that the production of oxylipins in filamentous fungi, yeasts and chromists is also related to the development of the organism itself and to mechanisms of communication with the host at the cellular level. The oxylipins, also produced by the host during defense reactions, are able to induce sporulation and to regulate the biosynthesis of mycotoxins in several pathogenic fungi. In A. flavus, the oxylipins play a crucial role as signals for regulating the biosynthesis of aflatoxins, the conidiogenesis and the formation of sclerotia. To investigate the involvement of an oxylipins based cross-talk into Z. mays and A. flavus interaction, we analyzed the oxylipins profile of the wild type strain and of three mutants of A. flavus that are deleted at the Aflox1 gene level also during maize kernel invasion. A lipidomic approach has been addressed through the use of LC-ToF-MS, followed by a statistical analysis of the principal components (PCA). The results showed the existence of a difference between the oxylipins profile generated by the WT and the mutants onto challenged maize. In relation to this, aflatoxin synthesis which is largely hampered in vitro, is intriguingly restored. These results highlight the important role of maize oxylipin in driving secondary metabolism in A. flavus.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia Ambientale, Università Sapienza - Roma Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Marzia
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Scarpari
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia Ambientale, Università Sapienza - Roma Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Punelli
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia Ambientale, Università Sapienza - Roma Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Valeria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Scala
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia Ambientale, Università Sapienza - Roma Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zaccaria
authors.affiliation: Unità Tecnica Sviluppo Sostenibile ed Innovazione del Sistema Agro-industriale, Laboratorio Innovazione Agroindustriale, ENEA C.R. Casaccia Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Chiara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nobili
authors.affiliation: IFO-S.Gallicano Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Matteo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ludovici
authors.affiliation: IFO-S.Gallicano Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Emanuela
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Camera
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia Ambientale, Università Sapienza - Roma Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Anna A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Fabbri
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia Ambientale, Università Sapienza - Roma Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Reverberi
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia Ambientale, Università Sapienza - Roma Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Corrado
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fanelli
keywords: aflatoxins; lipidomic; lipoxygenase; maize kernels; reverse genetic