indicating a possible role for the product of this gene in OTA biosynthesis We developed a relative quantification gene expression assay by real time reverse transcriptase PCR to demonstrate that pks gene expression appears to correlate with OTA production in A. niger.
The pks gene is up-regulated in medium supporting OTA production and a high induction of the pks gene can be determined already about 12 h before an increase in OTA concentration is detected. This work describes for the first time the correlation between pks gene expression and OTA production in A. niger, and represents an important first step in increasing our understanding of the genetic mechanism of OTA biosynthesis.