Ancestral polymorphism and adaptive evolution in the trichothecene mycotoxin gene cluster of phytopathogenic Fusarium.

ABSTRACT: Filamentous fungi within the Fusarium graminearum species complex (Fg complex) are the primary etiological agents of Fusarium head blight (scab) of wheat and barley. Scab is an economically devastating plant disease that greatly limits grain yield and quality. In addition, scabby grain is often contaminated with trichothecene mycotoxins that act as virulence factors on some hosts, and pose a serious threat to animal health and food safety. Strain-specific differences in trichothecene metabolite profiles (chemotypes) are not well correlated with the Fg complex phylogeny based on genealogical concordance at six single-copy nuclear genes. To examine the basis for this discord between species and toxin evolution, a 19-kb region of the trichothecene gene cluster was sequenced in 39 strains chos

SUBMITTER: Ward TJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC123131 | biostudies-literature | 2002 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature