Xiao Hongying, Zhang Yiming, Li Qian
Henan Key Laboratory of Cereal and Oil Food Safety and Nutrition, College of Food Science and Engineering, Henan University of Technology, Zhengzhou, China.
Front Microbiol. 2025 Jun 2;16:1514170. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1514170. eCollection 2025.
The phytopathogenic fungus causes Fusarium head blight, which threatens agricultural yield and human health. We previously demonstrated that a plant-derived natural compound, 2-hydroxy-4-methoxybenzaldehyde (HMB), can inhibit . This study continued to investigate its antifungal mechanism. Compared to the control, HMB treatment at the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) significantly reduced ergosterol levels by 61.78%, indicating compromised fungal membrane integrity. Concurrently, intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels increased 22-fold, accompanied by a 146.03% increase in hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) content. Meanwhile, superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity increased, while catalase (CAT) activity declined, suggesting a marked change of redox metabolism upon HMB exposure. In addition, Quantitative Real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis revealed that HMB treatment significantly regulated the expression of genes participating in ergosterol biosynthesis (, , , etc.), DON biosynthesis (up to 16 genes), the redox system (, , , and ), global regulators (, , and ), and stress signaling pathways (, , , and ). These findings revealed the in-depth antifungal mechanism of HMB and proposed that HMB holds potential as an antifungal agent.
这种植物病原真菌会引发镰刀菌穗腐病，威胁农业产量和人类健康。我们之前证明了一种植物源天然化合物2-羟基-4-甲氧基苯甲醛（HMB）能够抑制……。本研究继续探究其抗真菌机制。与对照组相比，在最低抑菌浓度（MIC）下进行HMB处理可使麦角固醇水平显著降低61.78%，表明真菌细胞膜完整性受损。同时，细胞内活性氧（ROS）水平增加了22倍，过氧化氢（H₂O₂）含量增加了146.03%。此外，超氧化物歧化酶（SOD）活性增加，而过氧化氢酶（CAT）活性下降，这表明暴露于HMB后氧化还原代谢发生了显著变化。另外，实时定量聚合酶链反应（qRT-PCR）分析显示，HMB处理显著调节了参与麦角固醇生物合成（……等）、脱氧雪腐镰刀菌烯醇生物合成（多达16个基因）、氧化还原系统（……）、全局调节因子（……）以及应激信号通路（……）的基因表达。这些发现揭示了HMB深入的抗真菌机制，并表明HMB具有作为抗真菌剂的潜力。
