A chemical ecogenomics approach to understand the roles of secondary metabolites in fungal cereal pathogens.

Yit-Heng Chooi,Peter S Solomon

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2014.00640

Abstract

Secondary metabolites (SMs) are known to play important roles in the virulence and lifestyle of fungal plant pathogens. The increasing availability of fungal pathogen genome sequences and next-generation genomic tools have allowed us to survey the SM gene cluster inventory in individual fungi. Thus, there is immense opportunity for SM discovery in these plant pathogens. Comparative genomics and transcriptomics have been employed to obtain insights on the genetic features that enable fungal pathogens to adapt in individual ecological niches and to adopt the different pathogenic lifestyles. Here, we will discuss how we can use these tools to search for ecologically important SM gene clusters in fungi, using cereal pathogens as models. This ecological genomics approach, combined with genome mining and chemical ecology tools, is likely to advance our understanding of the natural functions of SMs and accelerate bioactive molecule discovery.

Highlights

The interactions of fungal plant pathogens with their hosts are highly complex and involve both secondary metabolites (SMs) and small secreted proteins as pathogenicity factors
GENOME EVOLUTIONARY DYNAMICS OF SM BIOSYNTHETIC GENES IN FUNGAL PHYTOPATHOGENS Secondary metabolite gene clusters are often not essential for the growth and survival of fungi under ideal conditions, but they confer selective advantages on the organisms by producing SMs that may act as defense molecules, signals, siderophores, or Frontiers in Microbiology | Microbial Physiology and Metabolism modulators in parasitic/endophytic interactions (Fox and Howlett, 2008; Collemare and Lebrun, 2011; Kusari et al, 2012)
Interspecific comparative genomic analysis identified HC-toxin gene cluster is present in another maize pathogen Setosphaeria turcica (Condon et al, 2013)

Summary

Introduction

The interactions of fungal plant pathogens with their hosts are highly complex and involve both secondary metabolites (SMs) and small secreted proteins as pathogenicity factors (often defined as effectors). Many SM gene clusters that encode the production of small molecules that have a role in host interactions are likely waiting to be discovered from these genomes.

Results

Conclusion