Divergence of Beauvericin Synthase Gene among Fusarium and Trichoderma Species.

Monika Urbaniak,Łukasz Stępień,Grzegorz Koczyk,Agnieszka Waśkiewicz,Lidia Błaszczyk

doi:10.3390/jof6040288

Abstract

Beauvericin (BEA) is a cyclodepsipeptide mycotoxin, showing insecticidal, antibiotic and antimicrobial activities, as well as inducing apoptosis of cancer cell lines. BEA can be produced by multiple fungal species, including saprotrophs, plant, insect and human pathogens, particularly belonging to Fusarium, Beauveria and Isaria genera. The ability of Trichoderma species to produce BEA was until now uncertain. Biosynthesis of BEA is governed by a non-ribosomal peptide synthase (NRPS), known as beauvericin synthase (BEAS), which appears to present considerable divergence among different fungal species. In the present study we compared the production of beauvericin among Fusarium and Trichoderma strains using UPLC methods. BEAS fragments were sequenced and analyzed to examine the level of the gene’s divergence between these two genera and confirm the presence of active BEAS copy in Trichoderma. Seventeen strains of twelve species were studied and phylogenetic analysis showed distinctive grouping of Fusarium and Trichoderma strains. The highest producers of beauvericin were F. proliferatum and F. nygamai. Trichoderma strains of three species (T. atroviride, T. viride, T. koningiopsis) were minor BEA producers. The study showed beauvericin production by Fusarium and Trichoderma species and high variance of the non-ribosomal peptide synthase gene among fungal species from the Hypocreales order.

Highlights

Beauvericin (BEA) is one of the main secondary metabolites from the cyclodepsipeptide group, consisting of three alternating D-2-hydroxyisovaleric (D-Hiv) acids and three N-methyl-L-phenylalanine residues (Figure 1) [1,2,3]
This study showed the differences in beauvericin production by a number of distant relatives—
Fungal species belonging to Fusarium and Trichoderma genera

Summary

Introduction

Beauvericin (BEA) is one of the main secondary metabolites from the cyclodepsipeptide group, consisting of three alternating D-2-hydroxyisovaleric (D-Hiv) acids and three N-methyl-L-phenylalanine residues (Figure 1) [1,2,3]. It has been proven in several research papers that BEA has many analogues, including naturally occurring beauvericins as well as precursor-directed beauvericins, which means that the corresponding amino acid precursor was added to the growing medium for their production [4,5,6,7,8]. Because of its structural and ionophoric properties, this mycotoxin transports monovalent cations across the membranes and can

Methods

Results

Conclusion