Functional genes associated with the occurrence of mycotoxins produced by Aspergillus in foods

doi:10.1016/j.jia.2025.10.017

Journal of Integrative Agriculture

2026, Vol. 25

Issue (2): 585-601 DOI: 10.1016/j.jia.2025.10.017

Review

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Functional genes associated with the occurrence of mycotoxins produced by Aspergillus in foods

Mei Gu¹, Can Liu¹, Xiaofeng Yue¹, Du Wang¹, Xiaoqian Tang¹, Qi Zhang^{1, 2, 3#}, Peiwu Li^{1, 2, 3, 4#}

¹Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Oil Crops and Key Laboratory of Detection for Mycotoxins of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs/Oil Crops Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wuhan 430061, China

²Institute of Food Safety, Hubei University, Wuhan 430061, China

³Hubei Hongshan Laboratory, Wuhan 430061, China

⁴Xianghu Laboratory, Hangzhou 311231, China

Highlights
● This review provides a comprehensive summary of the genes involved in aflatoxin biosynthesis and constructs the regulatory network governing toxin production, offering new insights for the development of aflatoxin control strategies.
● It also systematically summarizes the functions of key genes regulating the growth and development of Aspergillus species, thereby laying a theoretical foundation for the development of source-level control technologies against Aspergillus.

Abstract
References

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摘要

曲霉菌是一种广泛存在的真菌，其产生的毒素（次生代谢产物）包括杂色曲霉毒素、黄曲霉毒素、赭曲霉毒素A和环匹阿尼酸等，广泛存在于多种食品中，导致其遭受严重污染，危害人类健康。杂色曲霉毒素是黄曲霉毒素合成通路中的一种关键的代谢物，黄曲霉毒素主要是由黄曲霉和寄生曲霉产生的已知真菌毒素中毒性最强，致癌性最强的霉菌毒素。赭曲霉毒素由赭曲霉，碳色曲霉等多种曲霉产生。赭曲霉毒素又分为赭曲霉毒素A（OTA）、赭曲霉毒素B（OTB）和赭曲霉毒素C（OTC）三类，其中赭曲霉毒素A被认为是最丰富、危害最大的霉菌毒素。此外，由青霉菌和曲霉菌产生的环匹阿尼酸也是一种非常重要的霉菌毒素。人类如果意外误食被真菌毒素污染的食物，会导致多种癌症，内脏疾病、癫痫发作，甚至死亡。因此真菌毒素的防控技术的开发对保障农产品质量安全具有重要意义。研究参与曲霉菌生长、繁殖和毒素生物合成的功能基因，对于制定防治霉菌毒素污染的创新策略——从源头阻断毒素合成，最大限度地减少毒素产生，降低污染风险奠定理论基础。构巢曲霉能产生多种与生物技术和人类健康息息相关的化合物，是研究曲霉菌生长发育、次生代谢与环境因子相互作用的理想模型，因此被广泛用作真核生物遗传学和次生代谢研究的模式真菌。随着分子生物学技术的快速发展，一些功能基因不仅在构巢曲霉中得到研究，也在黄曲霉、寄生曲霉和烟曲霉等其他曲霉中被广泛关注。对同一功能基因在多种曲霉菌中的研究有助于阐明功能基因的保守性及其潜在的新功能，揭示物种间差异，并为开发创新型防控策略提供新思路。然而，现有综述多聚焦于曲霉菌中某一特定的生物学过程，缺乏对主要功能基因的系统性概述。本文综述了曲霉属真菌中参与多种真菌毒素（如杂色曲霉毒素、黄曲霉毒素、赭曲霉毒素和环匹阿尼酸等）生物合成，以及调控生长发育和对环境因子（光照、营养因子和pH）响应的关键功能基因的调控机制，同时讨论了近年来分子生物学技术在功能基因研究中的进展，以期为新功能基因的挖掘提供参考与技术指导。

Abstract

Aspergillus species are ubiquitous fungi that produce mycotoxins (secondary metabolites) known as sterigmatocystin and aﬂatoxins in many different kinds of foods, which leads to serious contamination in agricultural products, thereby endangering human health. Extensive studies on Aspergillus fungi have been conducted on growth and development, aflatoxin biosynthesis, and their interactions with environment. Here, we summarized a series of functional genes of the main Aspergillus fungi relative to toxins occurrence in foods, which revealed the signal transduction mechanisms of their involvement in growth and development, toxin production, and response to light, anticipating providing theoretical guidance on developing control and prevention technologies for mycotoxin contamination in agricultural products to ensure food safety.

Keywords: functional genes Aspergillus a?atoxin development

Received: 18 March 2025 Accepted: 13 September 2025 Online: 01 November 2025

Fund:

This work was supported by the key project of National Natural Sciences Foundation of China (U22A20551, 32030085), the Major Project of Hubei Hongshan Laboratory, China (2021hszd015), the Hubei Province Major Science and Technology Special Project, China (2023BBA002), the National Natural Sciences Foundation of China (U22A20551), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China Excellent Youth Fund (32422072).

About author: Mei Gu, E-mail: gumei1626@126.com; #Correspondence Qi Zhang, E-mail: zhangqi01@caas.cn; Peiwu Li, E-mail: peiwuli@oilcrops.cn

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Mei Gu, Can Liu, Xiaofeng Yue, Du Wang, Xiaoqian Tang, Qi Zhang, Peiwu Li. 2026. Functional genes associated with the occurrence of mycotoxins produced by Aspergillus in foods. Journal of Integrative Agriculture, 25(2): 585-601.

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