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[PERSON]  
1 Key Laboratory of Pathogenic Fungi and Mycotoxins of Fujian Province, Key Laboratory of Biopsticide and Chemical Biology of the Ministry of Education and School of Life Sciences, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China; elizawkb22@gmail. added that the aflatoxin biosynthesis pathway is one of the mostly understood pathways for fungal secondary metabolites. It is important to indicate that _A. flavus_ has been known for a very long time not only as the major producer of mycotoxins but also as the foremost producer of the Aflatoxin B\({}_{1}\) (AFB\({}_{1}\)) and B\({}_{2}\), among which AFB\({}_{11}\) is known to be the most poisonous [8; 9]. As indicated earlier, _A. flavus_ causes severe diseases to the seed/crops like peanuts, corn, rice, cotton, beans and wheat which lead to a significant loss of agriculture commodities. For example, in case _A. flavus_ is highly inhaled or ingested by living organisms, this fungus can cause various fungal infections such as invasive and non-invasive human aspergillosis [10; 11; 12]. For more than 40 years, unlike _A. fumigatus_, _A. flavus_ has been studied in animals' standards even though they are hardly used [5]. Studies indicated that _A. flavus_ is more virulent than any other _Aspergillus_ species capable of producing toxins [5; 13]. Therefore, a deep understanding on the signaling pathways that has an influence on the regulation of factors involved in this virulence is needed. Mitogen activated protein kinases (MAPKs) are protein kinases which are present in eukaryotes. These proteins are not only capable of differentiating immune responses in mammalian cells but also capable of mediating differentiation of programs in their cells [14]. Their signaling pathways are necessary for the adaptation of the environmental changes and are controlled by phosphorylation cascades [15]. Their kinases-cascades are composed of three-component signal relay, that is, MAPKKK (MAP kinase kinase kinase), MAPK (MAP kinase kinase) and MAPK (MAP kinase) and work in sequential activation. Once the cell receives different environmental stimuli, the former initiates an activation of a MAPK cascade. The MAPKKK first phosphorylates the MAPK which phosphorylates MAPK on its turn [16; 17; 18]. Several studies propound that MAPKs are also referred to as SAPKs (stress activated protein kinases) and their pathways are able to respond to multiple stress signals [19; 20; 21]. The recent study by [PERSON] et al. [22] and [PERSON] et al. [13] reported that _A. fumigatus_ contains 4 MAPK genes including _mpkA_, _mpkB_, _mpkC_ and _sakA/hogA_. Their findings were corroborated by several other researchers who further reiterated that MAPK SakA plays an important role in stress response [14; 23]. A study conducted by [PERSON] et al. [24] also found that MAPK SakA is an integral components of a central multiple stress-signaling pathway that also regulates development in _A. nidulans_. Similar studies on other _Aspergillus_ species revealed that _sakA_ gene is a homologue to _hog1_ gene of the _Saccharomyces cerevisiae_. Of significance, _sakA_ is also a part of MAPK signaling pathways in high osmolarity glycerol (HOG) pathway where it acts as an osmotic regulator [13; 25]. Upon exposure to a hyperosmotic pressure, HOG pathway gets activated and causes the alteration in the expression of various genes in _S.cerevisiae_[15]. For example, upon exposure to a hyperosmotic pressure, genes which are essential for growth and their expression are controlled by HOG pathway, such as glycerol biosynthesis genes _GPD1_ (glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase) [26], _GPP1_ and _GPP2_ (glycerol-3-phosphotase) [27; 28]. In a recent study, [PERSON] et al. [15] corroborated what has been reported by several studies highlighting the influence of osmotic pressure on _Aspergillus_ species as induced by solute concentrations, water content as well as water activity. In the case of _A. parasiticus_, moisture and substrate variation affected the development on corn kernels [29], whereas in _A.