Aabrm1-mediated melanin synthesis is essential to growth and development, stress adaption, and pathogenicity in Alternaria alternata
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Scytalone dehydratase (brm1) is one of the key enzymes in 1, 8-dihydroxynaphthalene (DHN) melanin synthesis, which mediates melanin biosythesis and regulates cell biological process of plant fungi, but its function in Alternaria alternata, the causal agent of pear black spot, is unclear. Brm1 in A. alternata was cloned, identified, and named as Aabrm1. An Aabrm1-deletion mutant was generated and revealed that the deletion of Aabrm1 leads to a significant decrease in melanin production and forms orange colony smooth spores. In addition, the deletion of Aabrm1 gene impaired infection structure information and penetration. The external stress resistance of Δ Aabrm1 was significantly weakened, and, in particular, it is very sensitive to oxidative stress, and the contents of H 2 O 2 and O 2.- in Δ Aabrm1 were significantly increased. Virulence of Δ Aabrm1 was reduced in non-wound-inoculated pear leaves but not changed in wound-inoculated pear fruit. These results indicated that Aabrm1-mediated melanin synthesis plays an important role in the pathogenicity of A. alternata.
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Deletion of BRM1 in Alternaria alternata significantly reduces the production of alternariol toxin (ATX), suggesting a functional correlation between melanin biosynthesis and mycotoxin synthesis.
“Deletion of BRM1 significantly reduces the production of alternariol toxin (ATX), suggesting a functional correlation between melanin biosynthesis and mycotoxin synthesis.”
From Fungal Melanin in Plant Pathogens: Complex Biosynthesis Pathways and Diverse Biological Functions (2025) · cites this paper as [63]
The Introduction reports that deleting brm1 in A. alternata reduced production of altertoxin (ATX), and the Results section reports reduced melanin after Aabrm1 deletion. This supports the suggested link, but the source calls ATX altertoxin, not alternariol, and does not say the ATX reduction was statistically significant. The ATX finding is reported from Gao et al. (2022), not measured in this paper. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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Fungal Melanin in Plant Pathogens: Complex Biosynthesis Pathways and Diverse Biological Functions
Jia, H., Liu, N., Zhang, L., Li, P., Meng, Y., Yuan, W., Li, H., Tantai, D., Qu, Q., Cao, Z., et al. (2025) · Plants · doi:10.3390/plants14142121 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
- Authors
- Li, R., Li, Y., Xu, W., Liu, W., Xu, X., Bi, Y., & Prusky, D.
- Affiliations
- Gansu Agricultural University (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Li, Yongcai
- Venue
- Frontiers in Microbiology
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Published
- 2024-01-11
- Volume
- 14
- Pages
- 1327765-1327765
- ISSN
- 1664-302X (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC10808324
- OpenAlex
- W4390806328
- Cited by
- 17
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 1
- FWCI
- 3.60
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Frontiers in Microbiology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (32372411, 32060567)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cell Biology › Plant Pathogens and Fungal Diseases
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Fungal and yeast genetics research
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Fungal Plant Pathogen Control
- Keywords
- Alternaria alternata, scytalone dehydratase, melanogenesis, 1,8-dihydroxynaphthalene, pear black spot, fungal pathogenicity, oxidative stress resistance, hydrogen peroxide, superoxide, spore morphology, infection structures, deletion mutants
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