Investigating glutathione transferase-mediated detoxification of deoxynivalenol in oat

PhD defence by Asta Holmelund Rønager

Assessment Committee

Associate Professor Elizabeth Heather Jakobsen Neilson, Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen (Chairperson)
Professor Nicolas Rouhier, Université de Lorraine, 66e section, Faculty of sciences and technologies
Professor Ralph Hückelhoven, TUM School of Life Sciences, Technical University of Munich

Supervisors

Associate Professor Nanna Bjarnholt

Professor David B. Collinge

Associate Professor Birgit Jensen Mikkelsen

Department

Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences

Place

Building: 1, Room: A 1-05.01, Dyrlægevej 100, 1870 Frederiksberg

Email address to gain access to the thesis: ashr@plen.ku.dk.
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Short description of the thesis

Fusarium head blight in cereal grasses leads to yield losses and subsequent contamination of infected grain with the mycotoxin deoxynivalenol (DON). This thesis explores stable in planta detoxification of DON through glutathione transferase (GST)-mediated glutathionylation in oats and establishes it as an enzymatically catalyzed reaction induced in response to Fusarium graminearum infection. We further present the identification of the oat GST enzyme family and investigate their transcriptional response during infection, leading to the identification of multiple oat GSTs with DON-glutathionylation activity in vitro. The work presented in this thesis provides novel insights into in planta detoxification of DON and highlights GSTs as promising tools for detoxification of mycotoxins.