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. 2015 Aug 6;6:573. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2015.00573

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Copyright © 2015 Pusztahelyi, Holb and Pócsi.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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Schematic presentation of main plant defense processes in Aspergillus flavus-maize interactions. A. flavus can attack kernels during all the six stages of their development. However, infection in non-injured kernels takes place later in the field, during the dent (R5) developmental stage just prior to physiological maturity (R6) (Marsh and Payne, 1984). As soon as 4 days after inoculation A. flavus mycelium reaches the aleurone, endosperm and germ tissue (Dolezal et al., 2013). Transcriptional analysis of the maize—A. flavus pathogen interaction revealed down-regulated (black arrow) starch biosynthesis and up-regulated genes (white arrows) of plant starch hydrolytic enzymes like β-amylase as well as downstream invertases and fructokinase. The produced hexoses flow through the up-regulated shikimate (SM) pathway, the methylerithryole (ME) pathway and toward up-regulated jasmonic acid (JA) and oxylipin biosynthesis, and feed pathogenesis related (PR) protein synthesis, e.g., peroxidases, glutathione S-transferase (GST) or chitinases that were also found up-regulated during infection. Oxylipins up-regulate aflatoxin (AF) biosynthesis and sexual reproduction in A. flavus and down-regulate fungal growth. Up-regulation of the SM pathway leads to the production of antifungal compounds flavonoids, phenylpropanoids, phytoalexins, and up-regulated lignin production in maize. Up-regulated plant hormone JA and abscisic acid (ABA) production is crucial in these defense mechanisms (Dolezal et al., 2014).