PCR reactions were performed as described previously (Kim et al., 2005). The candidate carotenoid

biosynthetic genes were deleted using the double-joint PCR method (Yu et al., 2004). Fungal transformation was performed as described previously (Kim et al., 2005). For pigment production, fungal strains were grown on CM for 7 days at 25 °C under cool-white fluorescent lights, after which the cultures were harvested, dried in a ventilated hood, ground in a blender, and then extracted with acetone. The acetone extracts were applied to an Al2O3 column (Duksan Pure Chemicals, Ansan, Korea) and eluted with petroleum ether (30–60 °C), chloroform, and chloroform : methanol (3 : 1 v/v). The carotenoids were purified using C18 reserve-phase silica-gel chromatography (Merck, Darmstadt, Germany), with neurosporaxanthin 17-AAG clinical trial purified from Δpks12 mutant, torulene from the ΔgzcarT/pks12 double mutant, and phytoene from the ΔgzcarB/pks12 double mutant.

Retinal was obtained from Sigma-Aldrich (St. Louis, MO). The fungal strains were grown on CM for 4 days at 25 °C under cool-white fluorescent lights. Then, 2 g of each culture was extracted with acetone, applied to a 0.3 g silica gel column (Merck), and eluted with chloroform : methanol (3 : 1 v/v). The elution was dried and dissolved in 5 mL chloroform. The resulting carotenoids were analyzed using an HP 1100 HPLC system (Hewlett Packard, Palo Alto, CA) and Symmetry C18 column (4.6 × 250 mm; Waters, Milford, MA). Absorption was measured at 298 nm for phytoene, 386 nm for retinal, and 462 nm for neurosporaxanthin and torulene. The mobile phase was acetonitrile : methanol : chloroform (47 : 47 : 6 v/v/v) at a

MK-1775 clinical trial why flow rate of 1 mL min−1. To test the genetic linkage between GzCarB or GzCarRA and carotenoid production, we fertilized the MAT1-2 deletion strain Δmat1-2 with ΔgzcarB/pks12 or ΔgzcarRA/pks12, as described previously (Lee et al., 2003). The Δmat1-2 strain carries the wild-type alleles GzCARB, GzCARRA, and PKS12. Each outcross was performed in triplicate on separate carrot agar plates, with 20–30 single ascospores randomly isolated from each plate 10 days after sexual induction. The genotype of each progeny was determined using PCR with specific primer pairs: GZCARB-5for/GEN-R and GZCARRA-5for/GEN-R primers were used to amplify the GzCARB and GzCARRA loci, respectively, and the presence of the PKS12 locus was determined using P12-5′f/HygB-r primers designed previously (Kim et al., 2005). Each progeny was grown on CM for 7 days, after which pigmentation was compared with that of its genotype. Four genes (FGSG_03064.3–FGSG_03067.3) were located at 9.2 kb of the putative gene cluster on supercontig 2 of the F. graminearum genome (Fig. 1a). The organization of the gene cluster was very similar to that of the cluster containing four genes related to carotenoid biosynthesis in F. fujikuroi (Thewes et al., 2005). The gene cluster included a gene coding for an opsin-like protein (FGSG_03064.