Bioinformatic Analysis of Secondary Metabolite Biosynthetic Potential in Pathogenic Fusarium

Abstract

Fusarium species are one of the filamentous fungal taxa with the most pronounced impact on agri-cultural production and human health. The mycotoxins produced by pathogenic Fusarium not on-ly attack various plants including crops, causing various plant diseases that lead to reduced yields and even death, but also penetrate into the food chain of humans and animals to cause food poi-soning and consequent health hazards. Although sporadic studies have revealed some of the bio-synthetic pathways of Fusarium toxins, they are insufficient to satisfy the need for a comprehen-sive understanding of Fusarium toxin production. In this study, we focused on 35 serious patho-genic Fusarium species with available genomes and systematically analyzed the ubiquity of the dis-tribution of identified Fusarium and non-Fusarium derived fungal toxin biosynthesis gene clusters (BGCs) in these species through the mining of core genes and comparative analysis of correspond-ing BGCs. Additionally, novel sesterterpene synthases and PKS_NRPS clusters were discovered and analysed. This work is the first to systematically analyze the distribution of related mycotoxin biosynthesis in pathogenic Fusarium species. These findings enhance the knowledge of mycotoxin production and provide a theoretical grounding for the prevention of fungal toxin production us-ing biotechnological approaches.