Transcription of genes in the biosynthetic pathway for fumonisin mycotoxins is epigenetically and differentially regulated in the fungal maize pathogen Fusarium verticillioides

ABSTRACT When the fungal pathogen Gibberella moniliformis (anamorph, Fusarium verticillioides ) colonizes maize and maize-based products, it produces class B fumonisin (FB) mycotoxins, which are a significant threat to human and animal health. FB biosynthetic enzymes and accessory proteins are encoded by a set of clustered and cotranscribed genes collectively named FUM, whose molecular regulation is beginning to be unraveled by researchers. FB accumulation correlates with the amount of transcripts from the key FUM genes, FUM1 , FUM21 , and FUM8 . In fungi in general, gene expression is often partially controlled at the chromatin level in secondary metabolism; when this is the case, the deac…