The Role of the Global Regulator of Secondary Metabolism LaeA in Different Fungi

Abstract

Secondary metabolites are natural bioactive products produced by bacteria, fungi and plants. It can be categorised as the deleterious mycotoxins, cytotoxic carcinogenic compounds or the beneficial antibiotics, fungicides, insecticides and antitumor metabolites. The increasing number of genome sequencing has shown that the fungal genome is a rich source of genes involved in secondary metabolism. Fungal secondary metabolism has, therefore, become an important topic of research around the globe. The genes involved in secondary metabolism are usually found in clusters in the genome. Secondary metabolites have been known to play important role in the development and pathogenesis of the fungus. To understand the role of secondary metabolites in pathogenesis it is important to study the mechanism of the global regulators of metabolism. Understanding the mechanism of action of the global regulators would help in increasing the production of beneficial metabolites and decreasing the production of deleterious metabolites. It would also provide an insight into the production of metabolites. One such global regulator of secondary metabolism is LaeA. The focus of this review is to provide an overview of the role played by LaeA across different fungi.