Metabolite profiling identifies the mycotoxin alternariol in the pathogen Stagonospora nodorum

Kar-Chun Tan¹, Robert D. Trengove², Garth L. Maker³, Richard P. Oliver⁴, Peter S. Solomon^5,6

¹Australian Centre for Necrotrophic Fungal Pathogens, SABC, Faculty of Health Sciences, Murdoch University; ²Separation Science Laboratory, Faculty of Health Sciences, Murdoch University Metabolomics Australia, Murdoch University; ³School of Pharmacy, Faculty of Health Sciences, Murdoch University; ⁴Australian Centre for Necrotrophic Fungal Pathogens, SABC, Faculty of Health Sciences, Murdoch University; ⁵Metabolomics Australia, Murdoch University; ⁶Plant Cell Biology, School of Biology (RSBS), The Australian National University

First Published: Metabolomics Journal / The Metabolomics Society, 2009

Abstract

A recent comparative proteomics study identified the short-chain dehydrogenase (Sch1) as being required for asexual sporulation (Tan et al. Eukaryotic Cell 7:1916–1929, 2008). Metabolite profiling was undertaken on the mutant strains of Stagonospora nodorum lacking the Sch1 gene to help elucidate its role. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry of the polar metabolites in the Sch1 mutants identified a secondary metabolite at a 200-fold greater concentration than observed in the wild-type strains. Comparative analysis of the secondary metabolite and the mycotoxin alternariol using ESI-MS/MS confirmed the identity of the compound as alternariol. This is the first report to confirm the presence of a mycotoxin in S. nodorum and compelling the field to consider the health implication of this disease.

View publication: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11306-009-0158-2