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The Fusarium graminearum genome reveals more secondary metabolite gene clusters and hints of horizontal gene transfer.

ABSTRACT: Fungal secondary metabolite biosynthesis genes are of major interest due to the pharmacological properties of their products (like mycotoxins and antibiotics). The genome of the plant pathogenic fungus Fusarium graminearum codes for a large number of candidate enzymes involved in secondary metabolite biosynthesis. However, the chemical nature of most enzymatic products of proteins encoded by putative secondary metabolism biosynthetic genes is largely unknown. Based on our analysis we present 67 gene clusters with significant enrichment of predicted secondary metabolism related enzymatic functions. 20 gene clusters with unknown metabolites exhibit strong gene expression correlation in planta and presumably play a role in virulence. Furthermore, the identification of conserved and over-represented putative transcription factor binding sites serves as additional evidence for cluster co-regulation. Orthologous cluster search provided insight into the evolution of secondary metabolism clusters. Some clusters are characteristic for the Fusarium phylum while others show evidence of horizontal gene transfer as orthologs can be found in representatives of the Botrytis or Cochliobolus lineage. The presented candidate clusters provide valuable targets for experimental examination.

SUBMITTER: Sieber CM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4198257 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The Fusarium graminearum genome reveals more secondary metabolite gene clusters and hints of horizontal gene transfer.

Sieber Christian M K CM Lee Wanseon W Wong Philip P Münsterkötter Martin M Mewes Hans-Werner HW Schmeitzl Clemens C Varga Elisabeth E Berthiller Franz F Adam Gerhard G Güldener Ulrich U

PloS one 20141015 10

Fungal secondary metabolite biosynthesis genes are of major interest due to the pharmacological properties of their products (like mycotoxins and antibiotics). The genome of the plant pathogenic fungus Fusarium graminearum codes for a large number of candidate enzymes involved in secondary metabolite biosynthesis. However, the chemical nature of most enzymatic products of proteins encoded by putative secondary metabolism biosynthetic genes is largely unknown. Based on our analysis we present 67 ...[more]

PMID: 25333987

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Project description:The cereal pathogen Fusarium graminearum produces secondary metabolites toxic to humans and animals, yet coordinated transcriptional regulation of gene clusters remains largely a mystery. By chromatin immunoprecipitation and high-throughput DNA sequencing (ChIP-seq) we found that regions with secondary metabolite clusters are enriched for trimethylated histone H3 lysine 27 (H3K27me3), a histone modification associated with gene silencing. H3K27me3 was found predominantly in regions that lack synteny with other Fusarium species, generally subtelomeric regions. Di- or trimethylated H3K4 (H3K4me2/3), two modifications associated with gene activity, and H3K27me3 are predominantly found in mutually exclusive regions of the genome. To find functions for H3K27me3, we deleted the gene for the putative H3K27 methyltransferase, KMT6, a homolog of Drosophila Enhancer of zeste, E(z). The kmt6 mutant lacks H3K27me3, as shown by western blot and ChIP-seq, displays growth defects, is sterile, and constitutively expresses genes for mycotoxins, pigments and other secondary metabolites. Transcriptome analyses showed that 75% of 4,449 silent genes are enriched for H3K27me3. A subset of genes that were enriched for H3K27me3 in WT gained H3K4me2/3 in kmt6. A largely overlapping set of genes showed increased expression in kmt6. Almost 95% of the remaining 2,720 annotated silent genes showed no enrichment for either H3K27me3 or H3K4me2/3 in kmt6. In these cases mere absence of H3K27me3 was insufficient for expression, which suggests that additional changes are required to activate genes. Taken together, we show that absence of H3K27me3 allowed expression of an additional 14% of the genome, resulting in derepression of genes predominantly involved in secondary metabolite pathways and other species-specific functions, including putative secreted pathogenicity factors. Results from this study provide the framework for novel targeted strategies to control the "cryptic genome", specifically secondary metabolite expression.

Project description:The phytopathogenic fungus Fusarium fujikuroi is the causal agent of bakanae disease on rice due to its ability to produce gibberellins. Besides these phytohormones, F. fujikuroi is able to produce a wide range of other secondary metabolites (SMs), such as mycotoxins and pigments. Although much progress has been made in the field of secondary metabolism over the last years, the transcriptional regulation of SM biosynthetic genes is complex and far from being fully understood. Environmental conditions (e.g. nitrogen availability and pH), global and pathway-specific regulators as well as chromatin remodeling were shown to play major roles in this regulation. Here, the role of FfSge1, a homolog of the morphological switch regulators Wor1 and Ryp1 in Candida albicans and Histoplasma capsulatum, respectively, is explored with emphasis on secondary metabolism. FfSge1 is not required for conidia formation and pathogenicity, but is involved in vegetative growth. Genome-wide transcriptome analysis of the M-NM-^Tffsge1 deletion mutant compared to the wild type revealed that FfSge1 is a global regulator of secondary metabolism in F. fujikuroi that activates the expression of several SMs. In addition, FfSge1 is also required for expression of a yet uncharacterized SM gene cluster containing a noncanonical non-ribosomal peptide synthetase. Investigation of whole genome gene expression of the Fusarium fujikuroi wild type IMI58289, M-NM-^Tffsge1 mutant under nitrogen starvation and nitrogen sufficient conditions. In this study we hybridized in total 8 microarrays using total RNA recovered from a wild-type culture of F. fujikuroi IMI58289 and M-NM-^Tffsge1 mutant culture. All cultures were grown on a 6 mM Gln (10%) and a 60 mM Gln medium (100%). For each combination of culture and medium a biological replicate was created. Each chip measures the expression level of 14,397 genes from F. fujikuroi IMI58289 with eight 60-mer probes. Please note that the wild type samples have been published as part of the GEO accession GSE43745, but re-analyzed with the M-NM-^Tffsge1 mutant samples in the current study.

Dataset Information

The Fusarium graminearum genome reveals more secondary metabolite gene clusters and hints of horizontal gene transfer.

Publications

The Fusarium graminearum genome reveals more secondary metabolite gene clusters and hints of horizontal gene transfer.

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