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<p>Cotton is a globally important crop that is susceptible to fungal infections. In cotton and other crops, fungal infections can result in mycotoxin contamination, crops being tainted with fungal-produced toxic secondary metabolites. Aflatoxins, a mycotoxin produced by some <i>Aspergillus</i> species, pose a critical health issue and result in major agricultural economic losses annually in cotton. RNA interference technology that is aimed to suppress gene expression in contaminating pathogens is known colloquially as host-induced gene silencing (HIGS). This engineering strategy has been demonstrated in other crops to be an effective means to reduce or eliminate aflatoxins. We transformed cotton plants with a strong constitutive RNAi gene expression cassette that targeted the suppression of the aflatoxin-biosynthetic gene <i>aflC</i>, which encodes for a critical polyketide synthase gene in <i>Aspergillus</i> species. The three transgenic RNAi cotton lines did not display any notable agronomic differences compared to the nontransgenic counterpart cotton plants. However, when challenged with an <i>Aspergillus</i> infection, all transgenic lines displayed significant reduction, up to 99% less, in the accumulation of aflatoxin. These results show that HIGS can play a significant role in the pre-harvest alleviation of aflatoxin in cotton and this strategy could contribute to the enhancement of both global food security and safety.</p>

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Host-induced gene silencing is an effective strategy to mitigate pre-harvest aflatoxin contamination in cotton

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

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  • 发表日期：

    2025年7月9日

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  • Monica A. Schmidt,
  • Shanmukh S. Salimath,
  • Hillary L. Mehl,
  • Kent D. Chapman

摘要

Cotton is a globally important crop that is susceptible to fungal infections. In cotton and other crops, fungal infections can result in mycotoxin contamination, crops being tainted with fungal-produced toxic secondary metabolites. Aflatoxins, a mycotoxin produced by some Aspergillus species, pose a critical health issue and result in major agricultural economic losses annually in cotton. RNA interference technology that is aimed to suppress gene expression in contaminating pathogens is known colloquially as host-induced gene silencing (HIGS). This engineering strategy has been demonstrated in other crops to be an effective means to reduce or eliminate aflatoxins. We transformed cotton plants with a strong constitutive RNAi gene expression cassette that targeted the suppression of the aflatoxin-biosynthetic gene aflC, which encodes for a critical polyketide synthase gene in Aspergillus species. The three transgenic RNAi cotton lines did not display any notable agronomic differences compared to the nontransgenic counterpart cotton plants. However, when challenged with an Aspergillus infection, all transgenic lines displayed significant reduction, up to 99% less, in the accumulation of aflatoxin. These results show that HIGS can play a significant role in the pre-harvest alleviation of aflatoxin in cotton and this strategy could contribute to the enhancement of both global food security and safety.