The molecular mechanisms underlying aflatoxin production have been well-studied in strains of the fungus Aspergillus flavus (A. flavus) under artificial conditions. However, aflatoxin biosynthesis has rarely been studied in A. flavus strains isolated from field conditions with different aflatoxin-producing ability. In the present study, tandem mass tag (TMT) labeling and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with tandem-mass spectrometry analysis were used for proteomic quantification in natural isolates of high- and low-aflatoxin-yield A. flavus strains. Additionally, findings obtained using the TMT-labeling method were validated using the high-resolution multiple reaction monitoring (MRM-HR) method. In total, 4,363 proteins were quantified, among which 1,045 proteins were differentially expressed between the high- and low-aflatoxin-yield A. flavus strains. Bioinformatics analysis showed that the up-regulated proteins were significantly enriched in carbon-related metabolism and the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites, whereas the down-regulated proteins were enriched in oxidative phosphorylation. Moreover, GST proteins were found to be significantly down-regulated in high-yield A. flavus strains; this result contradicted previous findings obtained from A. flavus strains grown under artificial conditions. In summary, our study provides novel insights into aflatoxin regulation in A. flavus under field conditions and could facilitate the development of various strategies for the effective control of aflatoxin contamination in food crops.

黄曲霉毒素产生的分子机制已在真菌菌株中得到充分研究 黄曲霉 (黄曲霉) 在人工条件下。然而，很少有人研究黄曲霉毒素的生物合成。黄曲霉从田间条件中分离出来的具有不同产黄曲霉毒素能力的菌株。在本研究中，串联质量标签 (TMT) 标记和高效液相色谱 (HPLC) 结合串联质谱分析用于高和低黄曲霉毒素产量的天然分离株的蛋白质组学定量黄曲霉菌株。此外，使用高分辨率多反应监测 (MRM-HR) 方法验证了使用 TMT 标记方法获得的结果。总共量化了 4,363 种蛋白质，其中 1,045 种蛋白质在高黄曲霉毒素产量和低产量之间存在差异黄曲霉菌株。生物信息学分析表明，上调的蛋白质在碳相关代谢和次级代谢产物的生物合成中显着富集，而下调的蛋白质在氧化磷酸化中富集。此外，发现 GST 蛋白在高产中显着下调黄曲霉菌株; 这一结果与之前从黄曲霉在人工条件下生长的菌株。总之，我们的研究为黄曲霉毒素调节提供了新的见解黄曲霉 在田间条件下，可以促进制定各种有效控制粮食作物中黄曲霉毒素污染的策略。