MoLAEA Regulates Secondary Metabolism in Magnaporthe oryzae

Abstract

M. oryzae causes blast disease, the most serious disease of cultivated rice affecting global rice production. The genome of M. oryzae has been shown to have a number of genes involved in secondary metabolism, but most of them are uncharacterized. In fact, compared to studies of other filamentous fungi, hardly any work has been done on secondary metabolism in M. oryzae . It is shown here (for the first time, to our knowledge) that penicillin G is being synthesized in M. oryzae and that MoLAEA is involved in this process. This is the first step in understanding the penicillin G biosynthesis pathway in M. oryzae . This study also unraveled the details of how Mo LaeA works by forming a nuclear complex with Mo VeA in M. oryzae , thus indicating functional conservation of such a gene across filamentous fungi. All these findings open up avenues for more relevant investigations on the genetic regulation of secondary metabolism in M. oryzae .