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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.
Sec. Fungal Pathogenesis
Volume 14 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2024.1513134
This article is part of the Research Topic Unveiling the Hidden Arsenal: Exploring Secondary Metabolites and Fungal Development in Pathogenic Fungi View all 4 articles

Fungal Chemical Warfare: The role of aflatoxin and fumonisin in governing the interaction between the maize pathogens, Aspergillus flavus and Fusarium verticillioides

Provisionally accepted
  • 1 USDA/ARS Toxicology and Mycotoxin Research Unit, Athens, United States
  • 2 Food and Feed Safety Research Unit, Southern Regional Research Center, Agricultural Research Service (USDA), New Orleans, Louisiana, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The mycotoxigenic fungi, Aspergillus flavus and Fusarium verticillioides, commonly cocolonize maize in the field, yet their direct interactions at the chemical communication level have not been well characterized. Here, we examined if and how the two most infamous mycotoxins produced by these species, aflatoxin and fumonisin, respectively, govern interspecies growth and mycotoxin production. We showed that fumonisin producing strains of F. verticillioides suppressed the growth of A. flavus while non-producers did not. Additionally, while aflatoxin did not inhibit F. verticillioides growth, it did suppress fumonisin production. Fumonisin B1 concentration levels plummeted when challenged with a high dose of aflatoxin B1 or with an aflatoxin producing strain. With these findings, expression of the genetic regulators of secondary metabolism was investigated for both fungi. While no strong effect was seen on genes in the aflatoxin biosynthetic gene cluster when exposed to fumonisin B1, the fumonisin repressor FvZBD1, which is adjacent to the cluster, was induced with expression proportionate to concentration when F. verticillioides was challenged with aflatoxin B1. We also assessed the expression of the global regulators of fungal secondary metabolism, veA and laeA, and found that their expression is altered in both A. flavus and F. verticillioides when exposed to their competitor's mycotoxin. This work gives insight into the ecological roles of mycotoxins and why these fungi may produce them as weapons in the interspecies battle for resource acquisition.

    Keywords: Mycotoxins, Aspergillus flavus, Fusarium verticillioides, aflatoxin, Fumonisin

    Received: 17 Oct 2024; Accepted: 09 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Satterlee, Hawkins, Mitchell, Wei, Lohmar, Glenn and Gold. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Timothy Satterlee, USDA/ARS Toxicology and Mycotoxin Research Unit, Athens, United States
    Scott E Gold, USDA/ARS Toxicology and Mycotoxin Research Unit, Athens, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.