PARDO MEDINA , Javier

The genus Fusarium comprises hundreds of species of pathogenic and saprophytic fungi, usually characterized by a complex secondary metabolism. This includes the production of carotenoids, terpenoid pigments that give a characteristic orange color to their colonies. All the biosynthetic genes have been identified, and two of them are grouped in...

The proteins of the White Collar 1 family (WC) constitute a major class of flavin photoreceptors, widely distributed in fungi, that work in cooperation with a WC 2 protein forming a regulatory complex. The WC complex was investigated in great detail in Neurospora crassa, a model fungus in photobiology studies, where it controls all its major...

Carotenoid biosynthesis in the fungus Fusarium fujikuroi is regulated by environmental factors, with light being the main stimulating signal. The CarS RING-finger protein plays an important role in the downregulation of structural genes of the carotenoid pathway. A recent tran-scriptomic analysis on the effect of carS mutation identified a gene...

Small RNAS (sRNAs) participate in regulatory RNA interference (RNAi) mechanisms in a wide range of eukaryotic organisms, including fungi. The fungus Fusarium fujikuroi, a model for the study of secondary metabolism, contains a complete set of genes for RNAi pathways. We have analyzed by high-throughput sequencing the content of sRNAs in total...

The fungi Fusarium oxysporum and Fusarium fujikuroi produce carotenoids, lipophilic terpenoid pigments of biotechnological interest, with xanthophyll neurosporaxanthin as the main end product. Their carotenoid biosynthesis is activated by light and negatively regulated by the RING-finger protein CarS. Global transcriptomic analysis identified...

Many fungi of the genus Fusarium stand out for the complexity of their secondary metabolism. Individual species may differ in their metabolic capacities, but they usually share the ability to synthesize carotenoids, a family of hydrophobic terpenoid pigments widely distributed in nature. Early studies on carotenoid biosynthesis in Fusarium...

Fungi possess diverse photosensory proteins that allow them to perceive different light wavelengths and to adapt to changing light conditions in their environment. The biological and physiological roles of the green light-sensing rhodopsins in fungi are not yet resolved. The rice plant pathogen Fusarium fujikuroi exhibits two different...

Background The orange pigmentation of the agar cultures of many Fusarium species is due to the production of carotenoids, terpenoid pigments whose synthesis is stimulated by light. The genes of the carotenoid pathway and their regulation have been investigated in detail in Fusarium fujikuroi. In this and other Fusarium species, such as F....