Transcriptional and Proteomic Profiling of Aspergillus flavipes in Response to Sulfur Starvation

PLoS One. 2015 Dec 3;10(12):e0144304. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0144304. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

Aspergillus flavipes has received considerable interest due to its potential to produce therapeutic enzymes involved in sulfur amino acid metabolism. In natural habitats, A. flavipes survives under sulfur limitations by mobilizing endogenous and exogenous sulfur to operate diverse cellular processes. Sulfur limitation affects virulence and pathogenicity, and modulates proteome of sulfur assimilating enzymes of several fungi. However, there are no previous reports aimed at exploring effects of sulfur limitation on the regulation of A. flavipes sulfur metabolism enzymes at the transcriptional, post-transcriptional and proteomic levels. In this report, we show that sulfur limitation affects morphological and physiological responses of A. flavipes. Transcription and enzymatic activities of several key sulfur metabolism genes, ATP-sulfurylase, sulfite reductase, methionine permease, cysteine synthase, cystathionine β- and γ-lyase, glutathione reductase and glutathione peroxidase were increased under sulfur starvation conditions. A 50 kDa protein band was strongly induced by sulfur starvation, and the proteomic analyses of this protein band using LC-MS/MS revealed similarity to many proteins involved in the sulfur metabolism pathway.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Aspergillus / genetics
  • Aspergillus / metabolism*
  • Cysteine Synthase / metabolism
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial
  • Glutathione Reductase / metabolism
  • Glutathione Transferase / metabolism
  • Oxidoreductases Acting on Sulfur Group Donors / metabolism
  • Proteomics
  • Sulfate Adenylyltransferase / metabolism
  • Sulfite Reductase (NADPH) / metabolism
  • Sulfur / deficiency*
  • Tandem Mass Spectrometry
  • Transcriptome*

Substances

  • Sulfur
  • Oxidoreductases Acting on Sulfur Group Donors
  • Sulfite Reductase (NADPH)
  • Glutathione Reductase
  • Glutathione Transferase
  • Cysteine Synthase
  • Sulfate Adenylyltransferase

Grants and funding

This work was supported by funds to G.S.A. from the Florida Agriculture Experiment Station, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Florida. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.