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Pr laeA Affects the Production of Roquefortine C, Mycophenolic Acid, and Andrastin A in Penicillium roqueforti , but It Has Little Impact on Asexual Development.

Yudethzi MarcanoMariana MontanaresCarlos Gil-DuránKathia GonzálezLevicán GloriaInmaculada VacaRenato Chávez
Published in: Journal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) (2023)
The regulation of fungal specialized metabolism is a complex process involving various regulators. Among these regulators, LaeA, a methyltransferase protein originally discovered in Aspergillus spp., plays a crucial role. Although the role of LaeA in specialized metabolism has been studied in different fungi, its function in Penicillium roqueforti remains unknown. In this study, we employed CRISPR-Cas9 technology to disrupt the laeA gene in P. roqueforti (Pr laeA ) aiming to investigate its impact on the production of the specialized metabolites roquefortine C, mycophenolic acid, and andrastin A, as well as on asexual development, because they are processes that occur in the same temporal stages within the physiology of the fungus. Our results demonstrate a substantial reduction in the production of the three metabolites upon disruption of Pr laeA , suggesting a positive regulatory role of LaeA in their biosynthesis. These findings were further supported by qRT-PCR analysis, which revealed significant downregulation in the expression of genes associated with the biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) responsible for producing roquefortine C, mycophenolic acid, and andrastin A in the ΔPr laeA strains compared with the wild-type P. roqueforti . Regarding asexual development, the disruption of Pr laeA led to a slight decrease in colony growth rate, while conidiation and conidial germination remained unaffected. Taken together, our results suggest that LaeA positively regulates the expression of the analyzed BGCs and the production of their corresponding metabolites in P. roqueforti , but it has little impact on asexual development.
Keyphrases
  • crispr cas
  • poor prognosis
  • ms ms
  • palliative care
  • transcription factor
  • wild type
  • plasmodium falciparum
  • copy number
  • signaling pathway
  • gene expression
  • cell proliferation
  • binding protein
  • single cell
  • long non coding rna