Transcription of Genes in the Biosynthetic Pathway for Fumonisin Mycotoxins Is Epigenetically and Differentially Regulated in the Fungal Maize Pathogen Fusarium verticillioides

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 deacetylation and acetylation (and other posttranslational modifications) of histones are usually crucial in the regulation of transcription. To assess whether epigenetic factors regulate the FB pathway, we monitored FB production and FUM1, FUM21, and FUM8 expression in the presence of a histone deacetylase inhibitor and verified by chromatin immunoprecipitation the relative degree of histone acetylation in the promoter regions of FUM1, FUM21, and FUM8 under FB-inducing and noninducing conditions. Moreover, we generated transgenic F. verticillioides strains expressing GFP under the control of the FUM1 promoter to determine whether its strength under FB-inducing and noninducing conditions was influenced by its location in the genome. Our results indicate a clear and differential role for chromatin remodeling in the regulation of FUM genes. This epigenetic regulation can be attained through the modulation of histone acetylation at the level of the promoter regions of the key biosynthetic genes FUM1 and FUM21, but less so for FUM8.