title: RNA-Seq Reveals OTA-Related Gene Transcriptional Changes in Aspergillus carbonarius.
abstract: Ochratoxin A (OTA) is a mycotoxin harmful for animals and humans. Aspergillus carbonarius is the main responsible for OTA contamination of grapes and derived products. Gene transcriptional profiling of 4 A. carbonarius strains was carried out by RNA-Seq analysis to study transcriptome changes associated with OTA production. By comparing OTA inducing (OTAI) vs. non-inducing (OTAN) cultural conditions, a total of 3,705 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) (fold change > |2| and FDR ≤ 0.05) were identified. Several genes involved in primary metabolic processes, with particular regard to carbohydrate and amino acid metabolisms, secondary metabolic processes, transport, response to stress and sporulation were up-regulated by OTAI conditions at all the analysed sampling times (4, 6 and 8 DAI) or starting from 6 DAI. Highly up-regulated DEGs encoding enzymes involved in biosynthesis of secondary metabolites, oxidoreductases, transporters and transcription factors were examined for their potential involvement in OTA biosynthesis and related metabolic pathways. Differential expression of genes encoding polyketide synthases (pks), non-ribosomal peptide synthetases (nrps) and chloroperoxidase (cpo) was validated by RT-qPCR. Among clusters of co-regulated genes involved in SM biosynthesis, one putative OTA-gene cluster, including both pks and nrps genes, was detected in the A. carbonarius genome.
authors.affiliation: Department of Soil, Plant and Food Sciences, Section of Plant Pathology, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy.
authors.forename: Donato
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gerin
authors.affiliation: Department of Soil, Plant and Food Sciences, Section of Plant Pathology, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy.
authors.forename: Rita M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: De Miccolis Angelini
authors.affiliation: Department of Soil, Plant and Food Sciences, Section of Plant Pathology, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy.
authors.forename: Stefania
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pollastro
authors.affiliation: Department of Soil, Plant and Food Sciences, Section of Plant Pathology, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Faretra
mesh_terms: D001230:Aspergillus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015966:Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D005810:Multigene Family; D009793:Ochratoxins / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D059467:Transcriptome
chemical_list: D009793:Ochratoxins; C025589:ochratoxin A