Deletion of a Histone Acetyltransferase Leads to the Pleiotropic Activation of Natural Products in Metarhizium robertsii

Histone deacetylation normally decreases the gene expression in organisms. By genome-wide deletions of epigenetic regulators in entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium robertsii, unexpected activations of orphan secondary metabolite genes have been found upon the disruption of a histone acetyltransferase (HAT) gene Hat1. This led to the characterization of 11 new natural products, including eight isocoumarin derivatives meromusides A-H and two nonribosomal peptides meromutides A and B. Therefore, disruption of HAT represents a new approach to mine chemical diversity from fungi.