You are here:
MONITORING MYCOTOXIN PRODUCTION AT THE GENETIC LEVEL ON VARIOUS GROWTH SUBSTRATES USING QUANTITATIVE REVERSE TRANSCRIPTION POLYMERASE CHAIN REACTION?EXPERIMENT DESIGN
Citation:
Dean, T R., D Betancourt, AND M Y. Menetrez*. MONITORING MYCOTOXIN PRODUCTION AT THE GENETIC LEVEL ON VARIOUS GROWTH SUBSTRATES USING QUANTITATIVE REVERSE TRANSCRIPTION POLYMERASE CHAIN REACTION?EXPERIMENT DESIGN. Presented at Indoor Air Quality Problems and Engineering Solutions Symposium, RTP, NC, 21-23 July 2003.
Description:
The paper describes a method of analyzing the production of mycotoxins at the genetic level by monitoring the intracellular levels of messenger RNA (mRNA). Initial work will focus on threshing out the mycotoxin gene clusters in Stachybotrys chartarum followed by analysis of toxin production as an aspect of fungal growth conditions utilizing Quantitative Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (QRT-PCR). QRT-PCR is an in-vitro method of enzymatically amplifying specific sequences of RNA. Currently it is one of the most sensitive, flexible, and cost effective methods for RNA quantification and will be used to compare levels of MRNA from samples grown under different environmental conditions. Mycotoxin production has previously been shown to vary under different growth conditions. Production of mycotoxins depends on the strain and isolate of fungus and on environmental conditions such as the substrate, water activity (moisture and relative humidity), and duration of exposure to stress conditions and to microbial, insect, or other animal interactions. Previous studies have concentrated on monitoring the actual levels of mycotoxin present, but the goals of this research include determining when and to what extent toxin genes are turned on. Long-range goals include clarifying toxin regulation and developing cDNA arrays for expression characterization.