What is it about?

Through applications of traditional techniques of sequence homology comparison by similarity search and Markov modeling, this report describes the characterization of enzymatic functionalities associated to protein targets that could be considered for the control of root rots induced by Fusarium oxysporum. From the analysis of 318 F. graminearum enzymes, we retrieved 30 enzymes that are specific of F. oxysporum compared to 15 species of host plants. By comparing these 30 specific enzymes of F. oxysporum with the genome of Arabidopsis thaliana, Brassica rapa, Glycine max, Jatropha curcas and Ricinus communis, we found 7 key specific enzymes whose inhibition is expected to affect significantly the development of the fungus and 5 specific enzymes that were considered here to be secondary because they are inserted in pathways with alternative routes.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

The genus Fusarium contains some of the most studied and important species of plant pathogens that economically affect world agriculture and horticulture. Fusarium spp. are ubiquitous fungi widely distributed in soil, plants as well as in different organic substrates and are also considered as opportunistic human pathogens. The identification of specific enzymes essential to the metabolism of these fungi is expected to provide molecular targets to control the diseases they induce to their hosts.

Perspectives

Molecular targets from metabolic networks such as specific and analogous proteins as well as from signalling or regulatory networks are important for the control of human, animal and plant diseases. This new area of research has been only recently made possible thanks to the huge amount of knowledge accumulated in datasets, workflows, and high throughput techniques of molecular diagnosis and characterization.

Nicolas Carels
Oswaldo Cruz Foundation

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: Specific enzyme functionalities of Fusarium oxysporum compared to host plants, Gene, November 2018, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.gene.2018.07.003.
You can read the full text:

Read

Resources

Contributors

The following have contributed to this page