Feng Jie Jin

Double disruption of the proteinase genes, tppA and pepE, increases the production level of human lysozyme by Aspergillus oryzae

In this study, we investigated the effects of proteinase gene disruption on heterologous protein production by Aspergillus oryzae. The human lysozyme (HLY) was selected for recombinant production as a model for the heterologous protein. A tandem HLY construct fused with α-amylase (AmyB) was expressed by A. oryzae in which the Kex2 cleavage site was inserted at the upstream of HLY. HLY was successfully processed from AmyB and produced in the medium. We performed a systematic disruption analysis of five proteinase genes (pepA, pepE, alpA, tppA, and palB) in the HLY-producing strain with the adeA selectable marker. Comparative analysis indicated that disruption of the tppA gene encoding a tripeptidyl peptidase resulted in the highest increase (36%) in the HLY production. We further deleted the tppA gene in the pepE or palB disruptant with another selectable marker, argB. Consequently, a double disruption of the tppA and pepE genes led to a 63% increase in the HLY production compared to the control strain. This is the first study to report that the double disruption of the tppA and pepE genes improved the production level of a heterologous protein by filamentous fungi.

Genetic analysis of conidiation regulatory pathways in koji-mold Aspergillus oryzae.

Conidia of koji-mold Aspergillus oryzae are often used as starters in the fermented food industry. However, little is known about conidiation regulation in A. oryzae. To improve the productivity of conidia in A. oryzae, it is necessary to understand conidiation regulation in the strain. Therefore, we analyzed the conidiation regulatory system in A. oryzae using 10 kinds of conidiation regulatory gene disruptants. The phenotypes of AorfluG, AorflbA, AorflbB, AorflbC, AorflbD, AorflbE, AorbrlA, AorabaA, AorwetA, and AorfadA mutants are almost identical to those of the corresponding mutants in Aspergillus nidulans. The results indicated that the functions of conidiation regulatory genes are almost conserved between A. oryzae and A. nidulans. However, the severely reduced conidiation phenotype of the AorfluG disruptant in A. oryzae differs from the phenotype of the corresponding mutant in Aspergillus fumigatus in air-exposed culture conditions. These results suggest that A. oryzae, A. nidulans, and A. fumigatus have a G-protein signaling pathway and brlA orthologs in common, and only A. fumigatus has particular brlA activation pathways that are independent of the fluG ortholog. Furthermore, the analyses of AorflbA disruptant and AorfadA dominant-active mutants implicated that AorFadA-mediated G-protein signaling suppresses vegetative growth of A. oryzae.

Disruption of the Aopex11-1 Gene Involved in Peroxisome Proliferation Leads to Impaired Woronin Body Formation in Aspergillus oryzae

ABSTRACT The Woronin body, a unique organelle found in the Pezizomycotina, plugs the septal pore upon hyphal damage to prevent excessive cytoplasmic bleeding. Although it was previously shown that the Woronin body buds out from the peroxisome, the relationship between peroxisomal proliferation/division and Woronin body differentiation has not been extensively investigated. In this report, we examined whether Pex11 required for peroxisomal proliferation participates in Woronin body formation in Aspergillus oryzae. A. oryzae contained two orthologous PEX11 genes that were designated Aopex11-1 and Aopex11-2. Deletion of Aopex11 genes revealed that only the ΔAopex11-1 strain showed reduced growth and enlarged peroxisomes in the presence of oleic acid as a sole carbon source, indicating a defect in peroxisomal function and proliferation. Disruption of Aopex11-1 gene impaired the Woronin body function, leading to excessive loss of the cytosol upon hyphal injury. Dual localization analysis of the peroxisome and Woronin body protein AoHex1 demonstrated that Woronin bodies fail to fully differentiate from peroxisomes in the ΔAopex11-1 strain. Furthermore, distribution of AoHex1 was found to be peripheral in the enlarged peroxisome or junctional in dumbbell-shaped peroxisomes. Electron microscopy of the ΔAopex11-1 strain revealed the presence of Woronin bodies that remained associated with organelles resembling peroxisomes, which was supported from the sucrose gradient centrifugation confirming that the Woronin body protein AoHex1 overlapped with the density-shifted peroxisome in the ΔAopex11-1 strain. In conclusion, the present study describes the role of Pex11 in Woronin body differentiation for the first time.

Adenine Auxotrophic Mutants of Aspergillus oryzae: Development of a Novel Transformation System with Triple Auxotrophic Hosts

adeA and adeB genes homologous to Saccharomyces cerevisiae ADE1 and ADE2, respectively, were cloned from Aspergillus oryzae. AdeA and AdeB share 62.8% and 52.5% identities with S. cerevisiae Ade1 and Ade2, respectively. In order to obtain triple auxotrophic mutants from A. oryzae, 12 red-colored mutant colonies were isolated by UV mutagenesis of a double auxotrophic host, NS4 (niaD −, sC −), as a parent strain. All the mutants exhibited adenine auxotrophy and showed fluorescence in the vacuoles due to accumulation of a purine biosynthetic pathway precursor. Adenine auxotrophy of all the mutants was restored by introduction of either A. oryzae adeA or adeB genes. Sequence analysis demonstrated that substitutions or deletions of a single base pair occurred, inducing substitutions or frame shifts of amino acid sequences in both ade genes complementing the mutants. This study provides a novel host-vector system with triple auxotrophy in A. oryzae.

SclR, a Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Transcription Factor, Regulates Hyphal Morphology and Promotes Sclerotial Formation in Aspergillus oryzae

ABSTRACT Most known basic-region helix-loop-helix (bHLH) proteins belong to a superfamily of transcription factors often involved in the control of growth and differentiation. Therefore, inappropriate expression of genes encoding bHLH proteins is frequently associated with developmental dysfunction. In our previously reported study, a novel bHLH protein-encoding gene (AO090011000215) of Aspergillus oryzae was identified. The gene-disrupted strain was found to produce dense conidia, but sparse sclerotia, relative to the parent strain. Here, to further analyze its function, we generated an overexpressing strain using the A. oryzae amyB gene promoter. Genetic overexpression led to a large number of initial hyphal aggregations and then the formation of mature sclerotia; it was therefore designated sclR (sclerotium regulator). At the same time, the sclR-overexpressing strain also displayed both delayed and decreased conidiation. Scanning electron microscopy indicated that the aerial hyphae of the sclR-overexpressing strain were extremely branched and intertwined with each other. In the generation of the SclR-enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) expression strain, the SclR-EGFP protein fusion was conditionally detected in the nuclei. In addition, the loss of sclR function led to rapid protein degradation and cell lysis in dextrin-polypeptone-yeast extract liquid medium. Taken together, these observations indicate that SclR plays an important role in hyphal morphology, asexual conidiospore formation, and the promotion of sclerotial production, even retaining normal cell function, at least in submerged liquid culture.

Generation of large chromosomal deletions in koji molds Aspergillus oryzae and Aspergillus sojae via a loop-out recombination.

ABSTRACT We established a technique for efficiently generating large chromosomal deletions in the koji molds Aspergillus oryzae and A. sojae by using a ku70-deficient strain and a bidirectional marker. The approach allowed deletion of 200-kb and 100-kb sections of A. oryzae and A. sojae, respectively. The deleted regions contained putative aflatoxin biosynthetic gene clusters. The large genomic deletions generated by a loop-out deletion method (resolution-type recombination) enabled us to construct multiple deletions in the koji molds by marker recycling. No additional sequence remained in the resultant deletion strains, a feature of considerable value for breeding of food-grade microorganisms. Frequencies of chromosomal deletions tended to decrease in proportion to the length of the deletion range. Deletion efficiency was also affected by the location of the deleted region. Further, comparative genome hybridization analysis showed that no unintended deletion or chromosomal rearrangement occurred in the deletion strain. Strains with large deletions that were previously extremely laborious to construct in the wild-type ku70+ strain due to the low frequency of homologous recombination were efficiently obtained from Δku70 strains in this study. The technique described here may be broadly applicable for the genomic engineering and molecular breeding of filamentous fungi.

Efficient formation of heterokaryotic sclerotia in the filamentous fungus Aspergillus oryzae

Heterokaryon formation by hyphal fusion occurs during a sexual/parasexual cycle in filamentous fungi, and therefore, it is biotechnologically important for crossbreeding. In the industrial filamentous fungus Aspergillus oryzae, a parasexual cycle has been reported, and it was recently suggested that sexual reproduction should be possible. However, as A. oryzae enters into hyphal fusion with a much lower frequency than Neurospora crassa, the process of heterokaryon formation has not been extensively characterized in A. oryzae. Here, we developed a detection system for heterokaryon formation by expressing red or green fluorescent proteins in nuclei and conferring uridine/uracil or adenine auxotrophy to MAT1-1 and MAT1-2 strains of A. oryzae. The heterokaryon formation of A. oryzae was investigated in paired culture using the genetically modified strains. No sclerotial formation was observed in the hyphal contact regions of the two strains with the same auxotrophy, whereas numerous sclerotia were formed between the strains with different auxotrophies. In most of the formed sclerotia, the uridine/uracil and adenine auxotrophies were complemented, and both red and green fluorescence were detected, indicating that heterokaryotic fusants were formed by hyphal fusion before or during sclerotial formation. Moreover, overexpressing the sclR gene, which encodes a transcription factor promoting sclerotial formation, increased the number of heterokaryotic sclerotia formed between the two auxotrophic strains. Notably, these effects in sclerotial formation of heterokaryotic fusants were observed independently of the mating type pairing combinations. Taken together, these findings demonstrated that paring of different auxotrophs and sclR overexpression promote the formation of heterokaryotic sclerotia in A. oryzae.

Nonhomologous end-joining deficiency allows large chromosomal deletions to be produced by replacement-type recombination in Aspergillus oryzae.

Gene targeting is a technique of introducing a genetic trait at a predetermined site within a genome; it is also used to eliminate undesirable chromosomal regions from the relevant genome. Thus far, replacement-type recombination between two homologous regions separated by a large nonhomologous sequence has been hardly achieved probably due to the low frequency of homologous recombination in filamentous fungi. In this study, we report the successful and highly efficient deletion by replacement-type recombination of up to 470-kb regions of chromosome 8 and 200-kb region in chromosome 3, which includes a homologue of aflatoxin gene cluster, by nonhomologous end-joining deficient strains of Aspergillus oryzae. Our study results indicate that the deficiency of nonhomologous end-joining increases the distance of nonhomologous regions in replacement-type recombination, i.e., the possible deletion range in generation of large chromosomal deletion by one cycle of replacement-type recombination is increased in nonhomologous end-joining deficient strains.

Identification of a Basic Helix-Loop-Helix-Type Transcription Regulator Gene in Aspergillus oryzae by Systematically Deleting Large Chromosomal Segments

ABSTRACT We previously developed two methods (loop-out and replacement-type recombination) for generating large-scale chromosomal deletions that can be applied to more effective chromosomal engineering in Aspergillus oryzae. In this study, the replacement-type method is used to systematically delete large chromosomal DNA segments to identify essential and nonessential regions in chromosome 7 (2.93 Mb), which is the smallest A. oryzae chromosome and contains a large number of nonsyntenic blocks. We constructed 12 mutants harboring deletions that spanned 16- to 150-kb segments of chromosome 7 and scored phenotypic changes in the resulting mutants. Among the deletion mutants, strains designated Δ5 and Δ7 displayed clear phenotypic changes involving growth and conidiation. In particular, the Δ5 mutant exhibited vigorous growth and conidiation, potentially beneficial characteristics for certain industrial applications. Further deletion analysis allowed identification of the AO090011000215 gene as the gene responsible for the Δ5 mutant phenotype. The AO090011000215 gene was predicted to encode a helix-loop-helix binding protein belonging to the bHLH family of transcription factors. These results illustrate the potential of the approach for identifying novel functional genes.

A Large Nonconserved Region of the Tethering Protein Leashin Is Involved in Regulating the Position, Movement, and Function of Woronin Bodies in Aspergillus oryzae

ABSTRACT The Woronin body is a Pezizomycotina-specific organelle that is typically tethered to the septum, but upon hyphal wounding, it plugs the septal pore to prevent excessive cytoplasmic loss. Leashin (LAH) is a large Woronin body tethering protein that contains highly conserved N- and C-terminal regions and a long (∼2,500-amino-acid) nonconserved middle region. As the involvement of the nonconserved region in Woronin body function has not been investigated, here, we functionally characterized individual regions of the LAH protein of Aspergillus oryzae (AoLAH). In an Aolah disruptant, no Woronin bodies were tethered to the septum, and hyphae had a reduced ability to prevent excessive cytoplasmic loss upon hyphal wounding. Localization analysis revealed that the N-terminal region of AoLAH associated with Woronin bodies dependently on AoWSC, which is homologous to Neurospora crassa WSC (Woronin body sorting complex), and that the C-terminal region was localized to the septum. Elastic movement of Woronin bodies was observed when visualized with an AoLAH N-terminal-region–enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) fusion protein. An N- and C-terminal fusion construct lacking the nonconserved middle region of AoLAH was sufficient for the tethering of Woronin bodies to the septum. However, Woronin bodies were located closer to the septum and exhibited impaired elastic movement. Moreover, expression of middle-region-deleted AoLAH in the Aolah disruptant did not restore the ability to prevent excessive cytoplasmic loss. These findings indicate that the nonconserved middle region of AoLAH has functional importance for regulating the position, movement, and function of Woronin bodies.