TY - JOUR
T1 - CreA-mediated repression of gene expression occurs at low monosaccharide levels during fungal plant biomass conversion in a time and substrate dependent manner
AU - Peng, Mao
AU - Khosravi, Claire
AU - Lubbers, Ronnie J M
AU - Kun, Roland S
AU - Aguilar Pontes, Maria Victoria
AU - Battaglia, Evy
AU - Chen, Cindy
AU - Dalhuijsen, Sacha
AU - Daly, Paul
AU - Lipzen, Anna
AU - Ng, Vivian
AU - Yan, Juying
AU - Wang, Mei
AU - Visser, Jaap
AU - Grigoriev, Igor V
AU - Mäkelä, Miia R
AU - de Vries, Ronald P
N1 - © 2021 The Author(s).
PY - 2021/12
Y1 - 2021/12
N2 - Carbon catabolite repression enables fungi to utilize the most favourable carbon source in the environment, and is mediated by a key regulator, CreA, in most fungi. CreA-mediated regulation has mainly been studied at high monosaccharide concentrations, an uncommon situation in most natural biotopes. In nature, many fungi rely on plant biomass as their major carbon source by producing enzymes to degrade plant cell wall polysaccharides into metabolizable sugars. To determine the role of CreA when fungi grow in more natural conditions and in particular with respect to degradation and conversion of plant cell walls, we compared transcriptomes of a creA deletion and reference strain of the ascomycete Aspergillus niger during growth on sugar beet pulp and wheat bran. Transcriptomics, extracellular sugar concentrations and growth profiling of A. niger on a variety of carbon sources, revealed that also under conditions with low concentrations of free monosaccharides, CreA has a major effect on gene expression in a strong time and substrate composition dependent manner. In addition, we compared the CreA regulon from five fungi during their growth on crude plant biomass or cellulose. It showed that CreA commonly regulated genes related to carbon metabolism, sugar transport and plant cell wall degrading enzymes across different species. We therefore conclude that CreA has a crucial role for fungi also in adapting to low sugar concentrations as occurring in their natural biotopes, which is supported by the presence of CreA orthologs in nearly all fungi.
AB - Carbon catabolite repression enables fungi to utilize the most favourable carbon source in the environment, and is mediated by a key regulator, CreA, in most fungi. CreA-mediated regulation has mainly been studied at high monosaccharide concentrations, an uncommon situation in most natural biotopes. In nature, many fungi rely on plant biomass as their major carbon source by producing enzymes to degrade plant cell wall polysaccharides into metabolizable sugars. To determine the role of CreA when fungi grow in more natural conditions and in particular with respect to degradation and conversion of plant cell walls, we compared transcriptomes of a creA deletion and reference strain of the ascomycete Aspergillus niger during growth on sugar beet pulp and wheat bran. Transcriptomics, extracellular sugar concentrations and growth profiling of A. niger on a variety of carbon sources, revealed that also under conditions with low concentrations of free monosaccharides, CreA has a major effect on gene expression in a strong time and substrate composition dependent manner. In addition, we compared the CreA regulon from five fungi during their growth on crude plant biomass or cellulose. It showed that CreA commonly regulated genes related to carbon metabolism, sugar transport and plant cell wall degrading enzymes across different species. We therefore conclude that CreA has a crucial role for fungi also in adapting to low sugar concentrations as occurring in their natural biotopes, which is supported by the presence of CreA orthologs in nearly all fungi.
U2 - 10.1016/j.tcsw.2021.100050
DO - 10.1016/j.tcsw.2021.100050
M3 - Article
C2 - 33778219
SN - 2468-2330
VL - 7
SP - 100050
JO - Cell surface (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
JF - Cell surface (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
ER -