Comparative transcriptome and proteome analysis reveals a global impact of the nitrogen regulators AreA and AreB on secondary metabolism in Fusarium fujikuroi

PLoS One. 2017 Apr 25;12(4):e0176194. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0176194. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

The biosynthesis of multiple secondary metabolites in the phytopathogenic ascomycete Fusarium fujikuroi is strongly affected by nitrogen availability. Here, we present the first genome-wide transcriptome and proteome analysis that compared the wild type and deletion mutants of the two major nitrogen regulators AreA and AreB. We show that AreB acts not simply as an antagonist of AreA counteracting the expression of AreA target genes as suggested based on the yeast model. Both GATA transcription factors affect a large and diverse set of common as well as specific target genes and proteins, acting as activators and repressors. We demonstrate that AreA and AreB are not only involved in fungal nitrogen metabolism, but also in the control of several complex cellular processes like carbon metabolism, transport and secondary metabolism. We show that both GATA transcription factors can be considered as master regulators of secondary metabolism as they affect the expression of more than half of the 47 putative secondary metabolite clusters identified in the genome of F. fujikuroi. While AreA acts as a positive regulator of many clusters under nitrogen-limiting conditions, AreB is able to activate and repress gene clusters (e.g. bikaverin) under nitrogen limitation and sufficiency. In addition, ChIP analyses revealed that loss of AreA or AreB causes histone modifications at some of the regulated gene clusters.

MeSH terms

  • Fungal Proteins / genetics*
  • Fungal Proteins / metabolism
  • Fusarium / genetics*
  • Fusarium / metabolism
  • GATA Transcription Factors / genetics*
  • GATA Transcription Factors / metabolism
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal*
  • Genome, Fungal
  • Nitrogen / metabolism*
  • Proteome
  • Secondary Metabolism
  • Transcriptome

Substances

  • Fungal Proteins
  • GATA Transcription Factors
  • Proteome
  • Nitrogen

Grants and funding

This project was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (www.dfg.de), Grant Number TU101/12-2, BT. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.