Metabolic Changes of Fusarium graminearum Induced by TPS Gene Deletion

Fusarium head blight (FHB) mainly resulting from Fusarium graminearum (Fg) Schwabe is a notorious wheat disease resulting in huge losses in wheat production globally. Fg also produces mycotoxins which are harmful to human and domestic animals. In our previous study, we obtained two Fg mutants TPS1- and TPS2- respectively with a single deletion of trehalose 6-phosphate synthase (TPS1) and trehalose 6-phosphate phosphatase (TPS2) compared with the wild type (WT). Both mutants were unable to synthesize trehalose and produced less mycotoxins. To understand the biochemical changes induced by TPS gene deletion in Fg, we comprehensively analyzed the metabolomic differences between TPS- mutants and WT using NMR together with GC-FID/MS. The expression of some relevant genes was also quantified. The results showed that TPS1- and TPS2- mutants shared some common metabolic feature such as decreased levels for trehalose, Val, Thr, Lys, Asp, His, Trp, malonate, citrate, uridine, guanosine, inosine, AMP, C10:0 and C16:1...