RmtA, a Putative Arginine Methyltransferase, Regulates Secondary Metabolism and Development in Aspergillus flavus

RmtA, a Putative Arginine Methyltransferase, Regulates Secondary Metabolism and Development in Aspergillus flavus

Aspergillus flavus colonizes numerous oil seed crops such as corn, peanuts, treenuts and cotton worldwide, contaminating them with aflatoxin and other harmful potent toxins. In the phylogenetically related model fungus Aspergillus nidulans, the methyltransferase, RmtA, has been described to be involved in epigenetics regulation through histone modification. Epigenetics regulation affects a vari...

The Putative Histone Methyltransferase DOT1 Regulates Aflatoxin and Pathogenicity Attributes in Aspergillus flavus

Lysine methyltransferases transfer methyl groups in specific lysine sites, which regulates a variety of important biological processes in eukaryotes. In this study, we characterized a novel homolog of the yeast methyltransferase DOT1 in A. flavus, and observed the roles of dot1 in A. flavus. Deletion of dot1 showed a significant decrease in conidiation, but an increase in sclerotia formation. A...

Development of Aspergillus Flavus Af36

Aflatoxins are highly toxic cancer causing fungal metabolites known to cause immune-system suppression, growth retardation, liver disease, and death in both humans and domestic animals. Human exposure to aflatoxins is limited by regulations that prohibit the use of crops containing excess quantities of aflatoxins for foods and feeds. Aflatoxins are regulated in part per billion (ppb) ranges wit...

The amino acid metabolism of Aspergillus flavus.

rtfA controls development, secondary metabolism, and virulence in Aspergillus fumigatus

Invasive aspergillosis by Aspergillus fumigatus is a leading cause of infection-related mortality in immune-compromised patients. In order to discover potential genetic targets to control A. fumigatus infections we characterized rtfA, a gene encoding a putative RNA polymerase II transcription elongation factor-like protein. Our recent work has shown that the rtfA ortholog in the model fungus As...