Yasuji Koyama

Genome sequencing and analysis of Aspergillus oryzae

The genome of Aspergillus oryzae, a fungus important for the production of traditional fermented foods and beverages in Japan, has been sequenced. The ability to secrete large amounts of proteins and the development of a transformation system have facilitated the use of A. oryzae in modern biotechnology. Although both A. oryzae and Aspergillus flavus belong to the section Flavi of the subgenus Circumdati of Aspergillus, A. oryzae, unlike A. flavus, does not produce aflatoxin, and its long history of use in the food industry has proved its safety. Here we show that the 37-megabase (Mb) genome of A. oryzae contains 12,074 genes and is expanded by 7–9 Mb in comparison with the genomes of Aspergillus nidulans and Aspergillus fumigatus. Comparison of the three aspergilli species revealed the presence of syntenic blocks and A. oryzae-specific blocks (lacking synteny with A. nidulans and A. fumigatus) in a mosaic manner throughout the genome of A. oryzae. The blocks of A. oryzae-specific sequence are enriched for genes involved in metabolism, particularly those for the synthesis of secondary metabolites. Specific expansion of genes for secretory hydrolytic enzymes, amino acid metabolism and amino acid/sugar uptake transporters supports the idea that A. oryzae is an ideal microorganism for fermentation.

Enhanced gene targeting frequency in ku70 and ku80 disruption mutants of Aspergillus sojae and Aspergillus oryzae.

In the koji molds Aspergillus sojae and Aspergillus oryzae, exogenous DNA is integrated in the genome, in most cases irrespective of the sequence homology, suggesting that DNA integration occurs predominantly through a nonhomologous end joining pathway where two ku genes, namely, ku70 and ku80, play a key role. To determine the effect of ku gene disruption on the gene targeting frequency, we constructed ku70-, ku80-, and ku70–ku80-disrupted strains of A. sojae and A. oryzae. The gene targeting frequency of the tannase gene in ku70 and ku80 strains of both Aspergillus species was markedly enhanced as compared with that of the parental strains. The gene targeting frequency of the aflR and ku80 genes was also enhanced in an A. sojae ku70 background. Therefore, the koji mold strains with ku-disrupted genes will be excellent tools as hosts for efficient gene targeting.

Analysis of Expressed Sequence Tags from the Fungus Aspergillus oryzae Cultured Under Different Conditions

Abstract We performed random sequencing of cDNAs from nine biologically or industrially important cultures of the industrially valuable fungus Aspergillus oryzae to obtain expressed sequence tags (ESTs). Consequently, 21 446 raw ESTs were accumulated and subsequently assembled to 7589 non-redundant consensus sequences (contigs). Among all contigs, 5491 (72.4%) were derived from only a particular culture. These included 4735 (62.4%) singletons, i.e. lone ESTs overlapping with no others. These data showed that consideration of culture grown under various conditions as cDNA sources enabled efficient collection of ESTs. BLAST searches against the public databases showed that 2953 (38.9%) of the EST contigs showed significant similarities to deposited sequences with known functions, 793 (10.5%) were similar to hypothetical proteins, and the remaining 3843 (50.6%) showed no significant similarity to sequences in the databases. Culture-specific contigs were extracted on the basis of the EST frequency normalized by the total number for each culture condition. In addition, contig sequences were compared with sequence sets in eukaryotic orthologous groups (KOGs), and classified into the KOG functional categories.

Nonfunctionality of Aspergillus sojae aflR in a strain of Aspergillus parasiticus with a disrupted aflR gene

ABSTRACT Aspergillus sojae belongs to the Aspergillus section Flavi but does not produce aflatoxins. The functionality of the A. sojae aflR gene (aflRs) was examined by transforming it into an ΔaflR strain of A. parasiticus, derived from a nitrate-nonutilizing, versicolorin A (VERA)-accumulating strain. The A. parasiticus aflR gene (aflRp) transformants produced VERA, but the aflRs transformants did not. Even when aflRs was placed under the control of the amylase gene (amyB) promoter of Aspergillus oryzae, the amy(p)::aflRs transformants did not produce VERA. A chimeric construct containing the aflRs promoter plus the aflRs N- and aflRp C-terminal coding regions could restore VERA production, but a construct containing the aflRp promoter plus the aflRp N- and aflRs C-terminal coding regions could not. These results show that the A. sojae aflR promoter is functional in A. parasiticus and that the HAHA motif does not affect the function of the resulting hybrid AflR. We conclude that the lack of aflatoxin production by A. sojae can be attributed, at least partially, to the premature termination defect in aflRs, which deletes the C-terminal transcription activation domain that is critical for the expression of aflatoxin biosynthetic genes.

Cloning and expression of pyranose oxidase cDNA from Coriolus versicolor in Escherichia coli

Complementary DNA encoding pyranose oxidase (PROD) was cloned and sequenced for the first time from Coriolus versicolor. The nucleotide sequence revealed an open reading frame encoding a polypeptide composed of 623 amino acid residues. Compared with the experimentally determined N-terminal sequence of the PROD from C. versicolor. 38 amino acids from the N-terminus of the protein appeared to be eliminated during protein maturation. The cDNA was successfully expressed under the control of lacUV5 promoter in Escherichia coli at 25 degrees C, which will be beneficial in industrial production.

Identification and Analysis of Ku70 and Ku80 Homologs in the koji Molds Aspergillus sojae and Aspergillus oryzae

Ku genes play a key role in the non-homologous end-joining pathway. We have identified Ku70 and Ku80 homologs in the koji molds Aspergillus sojae and Aspergillus oryzae, and have constructed the disruption mutants of Ku70, Ku80, and Ku70–80 to characterize the phenotypic change in these mutants. Neither Ku70- nor Ku80-disrupted strains show hypersensitivity to the DNA damaging agents methylmethane sulfonate (MMS) and phleomycin. Moreover, undesirable phenotypes, such as poor growth or repressed conidiospore formation, were not observed in the Ku-disrupted A. sojae and A. oryzae.

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.

Efficient gene disruption in the koji -mold Aspergillus sojae using a novel variation of the positive-negative method

When no phenotypic screen is available, gene disruption in the koji -mold Aspergillus sojae is a time-consuming process, owing to the low frequency of homologous recombination. To achieve efficient gene disruption in the koji -mold, we developed a novel positive-negative selection method to enrich for homologous recombinants. The pyrG gene from A. sojae was used as a positive selection marker for transformants, and the oliC31 gene of A. nidulans, which codes for a mutant form of subunit 9 of the F1FO-ATPase, was employed as a negative selection marker to facilitate elimination of non-homologous recombinants among the transformants. The positive-negative selection markers, in combination with a pyrG deletion strain as a host, enabled enrichment for homologous recombinants, and disruption of the genes niaD, areA and tannase was successfully demonstrated. In order to examine whether the positive-negative selection technique is effective for targeting any locus, even in the absence of information on gene function or phenotype, we attempted to disrupt the aflR gene of A. sojae, which codes for a putative transcription factor for the aflatoxin biosynthetic pathway, using the method. Despite the fact that this gene is not transcribed in A. sojae, aflR disruptants were efficiently obtained, suggesting that the method is indeed capable of targeting any locus, without additional ectopic integration, and is thus applicable for functional genomics studies in filamentous fungi, including A. sojae.

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.

Draft Genome Sequencing and Comparative Analysis of Aspergillus sojae NBRC4239

We conducted genome sequencing of the filamentous fungus Aspergillus sojae NBRC4239 isolated from the koji used to prepare Japanese soy sauce. We used the 454 pyrosequencing technology and investigated the genome with respect to enzymes and secondary metabolites in comparison with other Aspergilli sequenced. Assembly of 454 reads generated a non-redundant sequence of 39.5-Mb possessing 13 033 putative genes and 65 scaffolds composed of 557 contigs. Of the 2847 open reading frames with Pfam domain scores of >150 found in A. sojae NBRC4239, 81.7% had a high degree of similarity with the genes of A. oryzae. Comparative analysis identified serine carboxypeptidase and aspartic protease genes unique to A. sojae NBRC4239. While A. oryzae possessed three copies of α-amyalse gene, A. sojae NBRC4239 possessed only a single copy. Comparison of 56 gene clusters for secondary metabolites between A. sojae NBRC4239 and A. oryzae revealed that 24 clusters were conserved, whereas 32 clusters differed between them that included a deletion of 18 508 bp containing mfs1, mao1, dmaT, and pks-nrps for the cyclopiazonic acid (CPA) biosynthesis, explaining the no productivity of CPA in A. sojae. The A. sojae NBRC4239 genome data will be useful to characterize functional features of the koji moulds used in Japanese industries.