Secondary Metabolites of the Rice Blast Fungus Pyricularia oryzae : Biosynthesis and Biological Function

• Published in: International journal of molecular sciences Vol. 21; no. 22; p. 8698
• Main Author: Motoyama, Takayuki
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 18.11.2020; MDPI
• Subjects: Alcohol; Antibacterial materials; Ascomycota - genetics; Ascomycota - metabolism; biological function; Biosynthesis; Endophytes; Enzymes; Epigenetics; Fungi; Gene clusters; Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal; Genes; Genetic engineering; Glycerol; Infections; Kinases; Magnaporthe oryzae; Melanin; Metabolism; Metabolites; Mycotoxins; Oryza - microbiology; Pathogenicity; Pathogens; Plant Diseases - microbiology; plant pathogenic fungus; Pyricularia oryzae; Review; Rice blast; Secondary Metabolism; secondary metabolite biosynthetic gene cluster; Secondary metabolites; Signal transduction; Tenuazonic acid; Magnaporthe oryzae; plant pathogenic fungus; secondary metabolite biosynthetic gene cluster; biological function
• ISSN: 1422-0067; 1661-6596; 1422-0067
• DOI: 10.3390/ijms21228698

Plant pathogenic fungi produce a wide variety of secondary metabolites with unique and complex structures. However, most fungal secondary metabolism genes are poorly expressed under laboratory conditions. Moreover, the relationship between pathogenicity and secondary metabolites remains unclear. To activate silent gene clusters in fungi, successful approaches such as epigenetic control, promoter exchange, and heterologous expression have been reported. , a well-characterized plant pathogenic fungus, is the causal pathogen of rice blast disease. is also rich in secondary metabolism genes. However, biosynthetic genes for only four groups of secondary metabolites have been well characterized in this fungus. Biosynthetic genes for two of the four groups of secondary metabolites have been identified by activating secondary metabolism. This review focuses on the biosynthesis and roles of the four groups of secondary metabolites produced by . These secondary metabolites include melanin, a polyketide compound required for rice infection; pyriculols, phytotoxic polyketide compounds; nectriapyrones, antibacterial polyketide compounds produced mainly by symbiotic fungi including endophytes and plant pathogens; and tenuazonic acid, a well-known mycotoxin produced by various plant pathogenic fungi and biosynthesized by a unique NRPS-PKS enzyme.