Genome mining of ascomycetous fungi reveals their genetic potential for ergot alkaloid production
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Genome mining of ascomycetous fungi reveals their genetic potential for ergot alkaloid production Nina Gerhards1 · Marco Matuschek1 · Christiane Wallwey1 · Shu‑Ming Li1
Received: 28 January 2015 / Revised: 7 March 2015 / Accepted: 12 March 2015 © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015
Abstract Ergot alkaloids are important as mycotoxins or as drugs. Naturally occurring ergot alkaloids as well as their semisynthetic derivatives have been used as pharmaceuticals in modern medicine for decades. We identified 196 putative ergot alkaloid biosynthetic genes belonging to at least 31 putative gene clusters in 31 fungal species by genome mining of the 360 available genome sequences of ascomycetous fungi with known proteins. Detailed analysis showed that these fungi belong to the families Aspergillaceae, Clavicipitaceae, Arthrodermataceae, Helotiaceae and Thermoascaceae. Within the identified families, only a small number of taxa are represented. Literature search revealed a large diversity of ergot alkaloid structures in different fungi of the phylum Ascomycota. However, ergot alkaloid accumulation was only observed in 15 of the sequenced species. Therefore, this study provides genetic basis for further study on ergot alkaloid production in the sequenced strains. Keywords Biosynthetic pathway · Ergot alkaloids · Gene cluster · Mycotoxins · Secondary metabolism
Communicated by Olaf Kniemeyer. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00203-015-1105-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Shu‑Ming Li [email protected]‑marburg.de 1
Institut für Pharmazeutische Biologie und Biotechnologie, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Deutschhausstrasse 17A, 35037 Marburg, Germany
Introduction The biosynthesis of ergot alkaloids has been under investigation for more than 50 years with a special focus on the fungus Claviceps purpurea (C. purpurea) as the most important producer (Floss 1976; Gerhards et al. 2014; Mai and Li 2013). Ergot alkaloids are well-known toxins. Ingestion of rye products, which were contaminated with the ergot fungus, led to horrible epidemics in the middle ages, and intoxication with ergot alkaloids occasionally happens in these days (van Dongen and de Groot 1995). On the other hand, the main ergot alkaloid produced by this fungus, ergotamine (Fig. 1), and its semisynthetic derivative dihydroergotamine are used clinically, e.g. for the treatment of acute migraine attacks (Robertson et al. 2010; Lovell and Marmura 2010). Even more common is the use of dihydroergotoxine as antidementia drug (Setnikar et al. 2001). Members of two families, Clavicipitaceae and Aspergillaceae of the phylum Ascomycota, are identified as main producers for ergot alkaloids. In addition to Claviceps, the genera Epichloë (and its anamorphic genus Neotyphodium) and Periglandula are also ergot alkaloid producers from the family Clavicipitaceae. Members of the second ergot alkaloid-producing family Aspergillaceae are Aspergillus fumigatus (A.
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