Discovery in Aflatoxin Formation
Craig A. Townsend
Johns Hopkins University
NIEHS Grant R01ES001670
A Nature article by NIEHS grantee Craig Townsend reports advances in the understanding of how the fungal toxin aflatoxin is synthesized opening new avenues that might lead to possible methods to prevent the formation of the toxin and its harmful effects.
Aflatoxin is produced by molds in the aspergillus family. They are ubiquitous and are found in many crops such as corn, rice, wheat, and peanuts. The toxin is consumed directly by eating contaminated crops or by drinking milk from cows fed contaminated food stuffs. The toxin is a known human carcinogen causing liver cancer.
Using xray crystallography, the research team determined the three-dimensional structure of an enzyme in the polyketide synthase family, which is a component of the multi-step process of toxin synthesis. They discovered a region known as the product template domain responsible for producing a precursor of the toxin. The researchers hope to further their discoveries and possibly develop a method to prevent the formation of aflatoxin.
Citation: Crawford JM, Korman TP, Labonte JW, Vagstad AL, Hill EA, Kamari-Bidkorpeh O,Tsai SC, Townsend CA. Structural basis for biosynthetic programming of fungal aromatic polyketide cyclization. Nature. 2009 Oct 22;461(7267):1139-43.
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