Abstract
Aflatoxins are toxic, carcinogenic secondary metabolites that are produced by some strains of Aspergillus flavus, A. parasiticus, A. nomius, and A. tamarii. Biosynthetic pathway of aflatoxins consists of more than 18 enzyme steps from acetyl coenzyme A. Many of the enzyme genes involved in aflatoxin biosynthesis have been isolated, and most of them are clustered. A regulatory gene product, AflR, regulates expression of these enzyme genes. This review summarizes the enzyme steps involved in aflatoxin biosynthesis and introduces the features of this pathway and regulation mechanism of aflatoxin production.
