title: The autophagy-related gene Acatg1 is involved in conidiation and cephalosporin production in Acremonium chrysogenum.
abstract: Autophagy is a highly conserved eukaryotic mechanism for degradation of cellular components and nutrient recycling process. A serine/threonine kinase Atg1 is essential for autophagosome formation under starvation. Acatg1, the homologous gene of atg1 was cloned from the cephalosporin producing fungus Acremonium chrysogenum. Disruption of Acatg1 inhibited the autophagosome formation under starvation and significantly reduced conidia formation. However, exogenous supply of glucose, sucrose, mannitol or inositol restored the conidia formation of the Acatg1 disruption mutant to the wild-type level, suggesting that autophagy is involved in the carbon utilization which is required for cell growth and morphological differentiation. Unexpectedly, the Acatg1 disruption mutant showed strong resistance to exogenous hydrogen peroxide comparing with the wild-type strain. Disruption of Acatg1 also enhanced cephalosporin production at the late stage of fermentation. Consistent with cephalosporin production, the transcription of cephalosporin biosynthetic genes was increased in the Acatg1 disruption mutant and Western blotting demonstrated that the isopenicillin N synthase PcbC involved in cephalosporin biosynthesis was retained at the late stage of fermentation in the Acatg1 disruption mutant while it was sharply reduced in the wild-type strain. These results indicated that Acatg1 plays an important role in both autophagosome formation and cephalosporin production of A. chrysogenum.
authors: State Key Laboratory of Mycology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors: Haoting
authors: H
authors: Wang
authors: State Key Laboratory of Mycology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors: Yuanyuan
authors: Y
authors: Pan
authors: State Key Laboratory of Mycology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), Hefei 230026, China.
authors: Pengjie
authors: P
authors: Hu
authors: State Key Laboratory of Microbial Resources, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors: Yaxin
authors: Y
authors: Zhu
authors: State Key Laboratory of Mycology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors: Jinyang
authors: J
authors: Li
authors: State Key Laboratory of Mycology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors: Xuejun
authors: X
authors: Jiang
authors: State Key Laboratory of Mycology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China. Electronic address: liug@im.ac.cn.
authors: Gang
authors: G
authors: Liu
mesh_terms: D000164:Acremonium / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D001343:Autophagy; D053898:Biosynthetic Pathways / Q000235:genetics; D015153:Blotting, Western; D002511:Cephalosporins / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D003470:Culture Media / Q000737:chemistry; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D055786:Gene Knockout Techniques; D005800:Genes, Fungal; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D013172:Spores, Fungal / Q000254:growth & development*; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
chemical_list: D002511:Cephalosporins; D003470:Culture Media; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases
keywords: Acatg1; Acremonium chrysogenum; Autophagy; Cephalosporin; Conidiation