Inactivation of the indole-diterpene biosynthetic gene cluster of Claviceps paspali by Agrobacterium-mediated gene replacement.

ABSTRACT: The hypocrealean fungus Claviceps paspali is a parasite of wild grasses. This fungus is widely utilized in the pharmaceutical industry for the manufacture of ergot alkaloids, but also produces tremorgenic and neurotoxic indole-diterpene (IDT) secondary metabolites such as paspalitrems A and B. IDTs cause significant losses in agriculture and represent health hazards that threaten food security. Conversely, IDTs may also be utilized as lead compounds for pharmaceutical drug discovery. Current protoplast-mediated transformation protocols of C. paspali are inadequate as they suffer from inefficiencies in protoplast regeneration, a low frequency of DNA integration, and a low mitotic stability of the nascent transformants. We adapted and optimized Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformati

SUBMITTER: Kozak L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5854541 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature