Prof. Zhonghua Ma’s group in theInstitute of Biotechnology published an article entitled The fungal myosin I is essential for Fusarium toxisome formation in PLos Pathogens (http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.ppat.1006827).    

Fusarium head blight (FHB) caused predominately by Fusarium graminearum is an economically devastating disease of small grain cereal crops. This pathogen not only reduces yield and seed quality but also poses a great risk to human and animal health owing to its ability to contaminate grains with mycotoxins. The common mycotoxins associated with F. graminearum are deoxynivalenol (DON), nivalenol (NIV) and zearalenone (ZEA). Among them, DON is the most frequently detected mycotoxin in cereal grains throughout the world.

In this study, Ma's group found that the myosin I of F. graminearum (FgMyo1) plays critical roles in mycotoxin biosynthesis. Inhibition of myosin I by the small molecule phenamacril leads to marked reduction in DON biosynthesis. FgMyo1 governs translation of the DON biosynthetic enzymeTri1 by interacting with the ribosome-associated protein FgAsc1. More importantly, the DON biosynthetic enzymes Tri1 and Tri4 are mainly localized to subcellular structures named as toxisomes in response to mycotoxin induction, and the FgMyo1-interacting protein, actin, participates in toxisome formation. Taken together, this study uncovers a novel function of myosin I in regulating mycotoxin biosynthesis in filamentous fungi.

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholar to Dr. Zhonghua Ma and Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province for Distinguished Young Scholar to Dr. Yun Chen.