Abstract
BackgroundWoronin bodies are fungal-specific organelles whose formation is derived from peroxisomes. The former are believed to be involved in the regulation of mycotoxins biosynthesis, but not in their damage repair function. The hexagonal peroxisome protein (HexA or Hex1) encoded by hexA gene in Aspergillus is the main and the essential component of the Woronin body. However, little is known about HexA in Aspergillus flavus.ResultsIn this study, hexA knock-out mutant (ΔhexA) and complementation strain (ΔhexAC) were produced using homologous recombination. The results showed that, ΔhexA and ΔhexAC were successfully constructed. And the data analysis indicated that the colony diameter, stress sensitivity and the sclerotia formation of A. flavus were nearly not affected by the absence of HexA. Yet, the deletion of hexA gene reduced the production of asexual spores and lessened virulence on peanuts and maize seeds markedly. In addition, it was also found that there was a significant decrease of Aflatoxin B1 production in deletion mutant, when compared to wild type.ConclusionsTherefore, it suggested that the hexA gene has an essential function in conidia production and secondary metabolism in A. flavus. The gene is also believed to be playing an important role in the invasion of A. flavus to the host.
Highlights
Woronin bodies are fungal-specific organelles whose formation is derived from peroxisomes
Sequence analysis of hexagonal peroxisome protein (HexA) in A. flavus HexA protein sequences from different fungi species were downloaded from National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) using “HexA” as the key words
The comparison of amino acid sequences revealed that HexA in A. flavus shown the highest identity (83%) to A. oryzae, and had the lowest identity (65%) to A. kawachill and A. luchuensis (Fig. 1a)
Summary
Woronin bodies are fungal-specific organelles whose formation is derived from peroxisomes. The former are believed to be involved in the regulation of mycotoxins biosynthesis, but not in their damage repair function. Over the past few years, the food security crisis has been a burning subject all over the world. This problem was affecting the human beings’ health, and closely affected the development of the human society at large. In 1864, Woronin body in Ascobolus pulcherrimus was first described by a Russian scientist Michail Stepanowitsch Woronin [10] It was named by Buller few years later [11]. This organelle was found to be blocking the septal pores in case of damage in a variety of ascomycetes [12,13,14,15]
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