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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, October 1998, p. 3713-3717, Vol. 64, No. 10
0099-2240/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Characterization of aflJ, a Gene Required for Conversion of Pathway Intermediates to Aflatoxin

D. M. Meyers,1 G. Obrian,1 W. L. Du,1 D. Bhatnagar,2 and G. A. Payne1,*

North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695,1 and USDA Southern Regional Research Center, New Orleans, Louisiana 701242

Received 12 February 1998/Accepted 21 July 1998

The genes encoding the aflatoxin biosynthetic pathway enzymes have been localized as a cluster to a 75-kb DNA fragment. The enzymatic functions of the products of most of the genes in the cluster are known, but there are a few genes that have not yet been characterized. We report here the characterization of one of these genes, a gene designated aflJ. This gene resides in the cluster adjacent to the pathway regulatory gene, aflR, and the two genes are divergently transcribed. Disruption of aflJ in Aspergillus flavus results in a failure to produce aflatoxins and a failure to convert exogenously added pathway intermediates norsolorinic acid, sterigmatocystin, and O-methylsterigmatocystin to aflatoxin. The disrupted strain does, however, accumulate pksA, nor-1, ver-1, and omtA transcripts under conditions conducive to aflatoxin biosynthesis. Therefore, disruption of aflJ does not affect transcription of these genes, and aflJ does not appear to have a regulatory function similar to that of aflR. Sequence analysis of aflJ and its putative peptide, AflJ, did not reveal any enzymatic domains or significant similarities to proteins of known function. The putative peptide does contain three regions predicted to be membrane-spanning domains and a microbodies C-terminal targeting signal.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Plant Pathology, Box 7616, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-7616. Phone: (919) 515-6994. Fax: (919) 515-7716. E-mail: Gary_Payne{at}ncsu.edu.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, October 1998, p. 3713-3717, Vol. 64, No. 10
0099-2240/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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