Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 7.
Patulin biosynthetic pathway. The blocked reactions in fi ve mutant (J1, J2, S11,
S15 and P3) and 2, 4, 7-10 are enzymes involved.
the precursors are naturally similar to patulin.
APPLICATION OF METABOLIC PATHWAY GENES
FOR DETECTION OF PROMINENT TOXIN
PRODUCING FUNGI
a) Fungi producing Afl atoxin
Afl atoxins are the most potent carcinogenic compounds among the
mycotoxins produced by
Aspergillus
species. PCR based detection methods
are useful in the detection of afl atoxigenic fungi. Primers which specifi cally
amplify afl atoxin biosynthetic genes will result in obtaining a positive PCR
product from DNA of the toxigenic fungus, while DNA from the non-
toxigenic fungus will give no product. The afl atoxin biosynthetic genes
are useful targets in this regard as they will be present only in afl atoxin
producing fungi. The afl atoxin gene cluster has now been fully elucidated,
with many of the genes having been cloned and characterized (
Fig. 2).
This has allowed the generation of specifi c PCR primers, which have been
