Fungal silent secondary metabolite gene cluster activation by disturbance of environmental responses

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 23580125
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Applied microbiology
• Research Institution: The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research
• Principal Investigator: MOTOYAMA Takayuki 独立行政法人理化学研究所, 長田抗生物質研究室, 専任研究員 (70291094)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): HIROTA Hiroshi 理化学研究所, 理研-KRIBB連携研究ユニット, 客員研究員 (00126153)
• Project Period (FY): 2011-04-28 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: イネいもち病菌 / 天然化合物 / シグナル伝達 / 生合成 / 農薬

Outline of Final Research Achievements

By disturbance of the signal transduction systems for environmental signals, we have enabled induced production of nectriapyrones and tenuazonic acid in the rice blast fungus. In contrast, epigenetic control compounds could not cause induced production of these secondary metabolites. We found that the induced production of tenuazonic acid is caused via a LaeA ortholog, a global regulator of fungal secondary metabolism. We have succeeded in identifying the biosynthetic gene for nectriapyrones and tenuazonic acid and revealed that these compounds are not essential for infection of the rice blast fungus. Tenuazonic acid showed rice blast disease suppression activity.

Free Research Field

応用微生物学