Method of inhibiting mycotoxin production in seed crops by modifying lipoxygenase pathway genes

Abstract

A method of inhibiting the production of mycotoxins of fungus, such as aflatoxin-producing and sterigmatocystin-producing fungi, in plants susceptible to contamination by such mycotoxins consists of introducing into the susceptible plant a gene encoding for lipoxygenase pathway enzyme of the mycotoxin. Exemplary of the lipoxygenase pathway enzymes are soybean lipoxygenase, allene oxidase, hydroperoxide lyase and hydroperoxide dehydratase. The resulting transgenic plant demonstrates substantial resistance to mycotoxin contamination of such fungus. Plants which are substantially resistant to mycotoxin contamination of Aspergillus spp. are further obtained by incorporating into mycotoxin susceptible plant antisense genes for the 9-hydroperoxide fatty acid producing lipoxygenases.