Role of zearalenone

One of the most significant problems in agriculture in temperate climate zones is the infection by pathogenic fungi of the genus Fusarium. Fusarium diseases can lead to contamination of fungal metabolites reaching toxicologically relevant levels in food and feed. One of such mycotoxin is Zearalenone (ZON) which due to its affinity to estrogene receptors is of particular concern to animal's and human's health. In plants, a role of ZON in plant-pathogen interaction is still under debate. 

In preparatory experiments we could show that ZON is rapidly metabolized in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana and together with newly occurring ZON-conjugates undetectable within 48 hrs (Berthiller et al., 2006; Werner, 2007). The molecular mechanisms 
of the removal of ZON is still poorly understood. A transciptome analysis revealed that within 2 hrs of ZON exposure stress and detoxification genes such as heat shock proteins, transporters, glycosyl-and gluthathione-S-transferases are strongly induced while genes involved in cell wall remodeling and reinforcement are downregulated. The transcriptome analysis is consistent with ZON's effect on cell expansion (Werner 2007, Werner et al. in preparation). Based on these promising results, the SFB-project aims to develop a method able to detect and eventually quantify ZON responses in planta. Once this method is established it will be used for a genetic approach to identify genes important for the uptake, metabolization and/or signaling of ZON. The system will also be used to study the interaction with other and novel Fusarium compounds that interact with ZON's action.