Aggregation of endosomal-vacuolar compartments in the Aovps24-deleted strain in the filamentous fungus Aspergillus oryzae.
Previously, we found that deletion of Aovps24, an ortholog of Saccharomyces cerevisiae VPS24, that encodes an ESCRT (endosomal sorting complex required for transport)-III component required for late endosomal function results in fragmented and aggregated vacuoles. Although defective late endosomal function is likely responsible for this phenotype, critical lack of our knowledge on late endosomes in filamentous fungi prevented us from further characterization. In this study, we identified late endosomes of Aspergillus oryzae, by expressing a series of fusion proteins of fluorescent proteins with orthologs of late endosomal proteins. Using these fusion proteins as markers, we observed late endosomes in the wild type strain and the Aovps24 disruptant and demonstrated that late endosomes are aberrantly aggregated in the Aovps24 disruptant. Moreover, we revealed that the aggregated late endosomes have features of vacuoles as well. As deletion of another ESCRT-III component-encoding gene, Aovps2, resulted in similar phenotypes to that in the Aovps24 disruptant, phenotypes of the Aovps24 disruptant are probably due to defective late endosomal function.
Tatsumi
Akinori
A
Department of Biotechnology, The University of Tokyo, 1-1-1 Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8657, Japan.
Shoji
Jun-Ya
JY
Kikuma
Takashi
T
Arioka
Manabu
M
Kitamoto
Katsuhiko
K
D001236:Aspergillus oryzae / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D011992:Endosomes / Q000378:metabolism*; D005656:Fungal Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D017353:Gene Deletion; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D021381:Protein Transport; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D014617:Vacuoles / Q000378:metabolism*; D033921:Vesicular Transport Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
D005656:Fungal Proteins; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; D033921:Vesicular Transport Proteins; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins