Abstract
Fusarium culmorum is one of the most important fungal plant pathogens that causes diseases on a wide diversity of cereal and non-cereal crops. We report herein for the first time the genome sequence of F. culmorum strain PV and its associated secondary metabolome that plays a role in the interaction with other microorganisms and contributes to its pathogenicity on plants. The genome revealed the presence of two terpene synthases, trichodiene and longiborneol synthase, which generate an array of volatile terpenes. Furthermore, we identified two gene clusters, deoxynivalenol and zearalenone, which encode for the production of mycotoxins. Linking the production of mycotoxins with in vitro bioassays, we found high virulence of F. culmorum PV on maize, barley and wheat. By using ultra-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, we confirmed several compounds important for the behaviour and lifestyle of F. culmorum. This research sets the basis for future studies in microbe-plant interactions.
Highlights
Fungi produce a plethora of structurally diverse secondary metabolites
To link the pathogenicity to secondary metabolites produced by F. culmorum, such as mycotoxins, the step was to sequence and investigate its genome
Fusarium culmorum is an important fungal plant pathogen, whose genome provides insight into genes and secondary metabolites linked to its pathogenicity and interaction with plant and other microorganisms
Summary
Due to their broad range of biological activities, secondary metabolites can provide an advantage to the producing organism under different environmental conditions (Demain & Fang, 2000, Keller et al, 2005, Keller, 2015) Many fungi release both volatile and polar water-soluble compounds (Keller et al, 2005, Morath et al, 2012, Keller, 2015, Dickschat, 2017), some of which exhibit antagonistic bioactivity towards competing organisms in the same habitat while others function as signalling chemicals. With the advances in sequencing technology, whole genome sequences have become available for identification and mining of unexplored secondary metabolite genes
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