Work

Secondary Metabolism Gene Clusters Exhibit Increasingly Dynamic and Differential Expression during Asexual Growth, Conidiation, and Sexual Development in Neurospora crassa

Year: 2022

Type: article

Abstract: Secondary metabolites (SMs) are low-molecular-weight compounds that often mediate interactions between fungi and their environments. Fungi enriched with SMs are of significant research interest to agriculture and medicine, especially from the aspects of pathogen ecology and environmental epidemiology. However, SM clusters (SMCs) that have been predicted by comparative genomics alone have typically been poorly defined and insufficiently functionally annotated. Therefore, we have investigated coordinate expression in SMCs in the model system N. crassa, and our results suggest that SMCs respond to environmental signals and to stress that are associated with development. This study examined SMC regulation at the level of RNA to integrate observations and knowledge of these genes in various growth and development conditions, supporting combining comparative genomics and inclusive transcriptomics to improve computational annotation of SMCs. Our findings call for detailed study of the function of SMCs during the asexual-sexual switch, a key, often-overlooked developmental stage.

Source: mSystems

DOI: 10.1128/msystems.00232-22

Authors: Zheng Wang, Francesc Lopez-Giraldez, Jason Slot, Oded Yarden, Frances Trail, Jeffrey P. Townsend

Institutions: Yale University, The Ohio State University, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Michigan State University

Language: English

Topic: Microbial Natural Products and Biosynthesis

Subfield: Pharmacology

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $3,500