Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology Commons^™

Transformation Of Fusarium Verticillioides With A Polyketide Gene Cluster Isolated From A Fungal Endophyte Activates The Biosynthesis Of Fusaric Acid, Yunxuan Xie, Wei Zhang, Yaoyao Li, Mingzi Wang, Ronald Cerny, Yue Shen, Liangcheng Du

Liangcheng Du Publications

A large number of bioactive natural products have been isolated from plant endophytic fungi. However, molecular mechanisms for the biosynthesis of these metabolites have lagged behind because genetic and biochemical studies are difficult to perform within many of the endophytes. In this work, we describe our attempt to express a putative mycoepoxydiene (MED) biosynthetic gene cluster in Fusarium verticillioides, which has a well-developed genetic system for the study fungal polyketide biosynthesis. MED was isolated from Phomopsis sp. A123, a fungal endophyte of the mangrove plant, Kandelia candel. It has several unusual structural features and interesting biological activities. Integration of …