GSE173210
The carP lncRNA is a carS-related regulatory element with broad effects on the Fusarium fujikuroi transcriptome
Carotenoid biosynthesis in the fungus Fusarium fujikuroi is regulated by environmental factors, with light as the main stimulating signal. The CarS RING finger protein plays an important role downregulating the structural genes of the carotenoid pathway. A recent transcriptomic analysis on the effect of carS mutation identified a gene for a lncRNA upstream of carS, called carP, whose deletion results in increased levels of carS mRNA and lack of carotenoid production. We have investigated the function of carP by studying the transcriptomic effect of its deletion and the phenotypes resulting from the reintroduction of carP to a deletion strain. RNA-seq data showed that the loss of carP affected the mRNA levels of hundreds of genes, especially after illumination. Many of these changes appeared to be cascade effects as a result of changes in carS expression, as suggested the comparison with differentially expressed genes in the carS mutant. Carotenoid production was only recovered when carP was transcribed upstream of carS, but not at other genomic locations, indicating a cis-acting mechanism of action on carS. However, some genes hardly affected by CarS were strongly upregulated in the carP mutant, indicating that carP may have other regulatory functions as an independent regulatory element Overall design: To check the role of the carP lncRNA, we compared the transcriptomes of the wild strain IMI58289 and the carP deletion mutant SG268, incubated in the dark or illuminated for 60 min. Data were obtained from three independent biological replicates for each condition