Transcriptome analysis of the Aspergillus fumigatus calcineurin
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ABSTRACT: Calcineurin plays an important role in the control of cell morphology and virulence in fungi. Calcineurin is a serine/threonine-specific protein phosphatase heterodimer consisting of a catalytic subunit A and a regulatory Ca2+/Calmodulin binding subunit. A mutant of A. fumigatus lacking the calcineurin A (calA) catalytic subunit exhibited defective hyphal morphology related to apical extension and branching growth, which resulted in drastically decreased filamentation. Here, we investigated which pathways are influenced by A. fumigatus calcineurin during proliferation by comparatively determining the transcriptional profile of A. fumigatus wild type and delta calA mutant strains. Our results showed that although the mitochondrial function is reduced in the delta calA mutant strain, its respiratory chain is functional and the mutant has increased alternative oxidase (aoxA) mRNA accumulation and activity. Furthermore, we identified several genes that encode transcription factors that have increased mRNA expression in the delta calA mutant and that could be involved in the Cal-CrzA pathway. Deletion mutants for these transcription factors had also reduced susceptibility to itraconazole, caspofungin, and sodium dodcyl sulfate. For the time course microarray experiments, 1.0 x 109 conidia of both A. fumigatus wild type [CEA17 delta akuB(KU80)] and mutant strain (delta calA) were used to inoculate 400 ml of pre-warmed liquid cultures in complete medium (YG) in 1 L erlenmeyer flasks. Cultures were allowed to grow for 6, 8, 12, 18 and 24 hours in a reciprocal shaker (250 rpm) at 37°C. At each time point, germilings were harvested by centrifugation or filtration and total RNA was extracted. Hybridization experiments were competitive using Cy3 or Cy5-labeled probes derived from both wild type and delta calA strain grown for 6, 8, 12, 18 and 24 hours. Hybridizations were performed using the wild type RNA as reference in comparison to the mutant strain (test RNA) for the same time point. Normalized signal intensities were used to generate relative hybridization ratios (query/reference). Following normalization, the values for each gene in-slide replicates were condensed (median variance <0.01), and corresponding flip-dye replicates were averaged to compensate for dye-specific effects (see Supplementary files linked below).
ORGANISM(S): Aspergillus fumigatus
SUBMITTER: Iran Malavazi
PROVIDER: E-GEOD-13939 | biostudies-arrayexpress |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-arrayexpress
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