The alcohol dehydrogenase gene adh1 is induced in Aspergillus flavus grown on medium conducive to aflatoxin biosynthesis.

An Aspergillus flavus cDNA library was screened by differential hybridization to isolate clones corresponding to genes that are actively transcribed under culture conditions conducive to aflatoxin biosynthesis. One clone with a 1.28-kb insert was isolated, and its nucleotide sequence was determined. The nucleotide sequence of this clone had 75% DNA identity to those of the alcohol dehydrogenase genes from Aspergillus nidulans, and the putative polypeptide translated from the cDNA sequence had 82% similarity with the amino acid sequences of the A. nidulans proteins. Thus, this gene has been designated adh1. Southern hybridization analysis of genomic DNA from A. flavus indicated that there was one copy of the adh1 gene. Northern (RNA) hybridization analysis indicated that the adh1 transcript accumulated in culture medium conducive to aflatoxin production and the timing of accumulation of adh1 transcripts was similar to that for aflatoxin. Fusion of the promoter region of adh1 to a beta-glucuronidase reporter gene indicated that accumulation of the adh1 transcript was the result of transcriptional activation. These molecular data support previous physiological evidence that showed the importance of carbohydrate metabolism during aflatoxin biosynthesis.