Abstract
Ochratoxin A (OTA) is a mycotoxin with nephrotoxic effects on animals and humans. Aspergillus carbonarius is the main responsible for OTA contamination of grapes and derived products. We present the genome resequencing of four A. carbonarius strains, one OTA producer and three atypical and unique non-OTA producing strains. These strains were sequenced using Illumina technology and compared with a reference genome of this species. We performed some specific bioinformatics analyses in genes involved in OTA biosynthesis. Data obtained in this study revealed the high genomic diversity within A. carbonarius strains. Although some gaps of more than 1,000 bp were identified in non-ochratoxigenic strains, no large deletions in functional genes related with OTA production were found. Moreover, the expression of five genes of the putative OTA biosynthetic cluster was down regulated under OTA-inducing conditions in the non-ochratoxigenic strains. Knowledge of the regulatory mechanisms involved in OTA biosynthesis will provide a deeper understanding of these non-ochratoxigenic strains.
Highlights
Ochratoxin A (OTA) is a potent nephrotoxin which is found mainly in cereals and their products, but it occurs in a variety of common foods and beverages such chocolate, dried fruits, coffee or wine
As one of our objectives was to find differences among the ochratoxigenic and the non-ochratoxigenic strains, we focused our analysis in some genes potentially involved in OTA biosynthesis
Due to the fact that non-ochratoxigenic isolates of A. carbonarius are very rarely found in nature, their inability to produce OTA was tested at different culture conditions and posteriorly confirmed by HPLC-MS
Summary
Ochratoxin A (OTA) is a potent nephrotoxin which is found mainly in cereals and their products, but it occurs in a variety of common foods and beverages such chocolate, dried fruits, coffee or wine. Besides this toxin is a potent renal carcinogen in rodents and a possible cancer threat to humans. Only some OTA related PKS genes have been detected in OTA producing species such as Aspergillus ochraceus, Aspergillus westerdijkiae, Penicillium nordicum, Penicillium verrucosum, Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus steynii[4,5,6,7,8,11,14,15,16]. Nearly 100% of the isolates of A. carbonarius produce OTA and its production is a very consistent property when monitored on CYA agar[24]
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