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Transcriptome-Based Modeling Reveals that Oxidative Stress Induces Modulation of the AtfA-Dependent Signaling Networks in Aspergillus nidulans.

ABSTRACT: To better understand the molecular functions of the master stress-response regulator AtfA in Aspergillus nidulans, transcriptomic analyses of the atfA null mutant and the appropriate control strains exposed to menadione sodium bisulfite- (MSB-), t-butylhydroperoxide- and diamide-induced oxidative stresses were performed. Several elements of oxidative stress response were differentially expressed. Many of them, including the downregulation of the mitotic cell cycle, as the MSB stress-specific upregulation of FeS cluster assembly and the MSB stress-specific downregulation of nitrate reduction, tricarboxylic acid cycle, and ER to Golgi vesicle-mediated transport, showed AtfA dependence. To elucidate the potential global regulatory role of AtfA governing expression of a high number of genes with very versatile biological functions, we devised a model based on the comprehensive transcriptomic data. Our model suggests that an important function of AtfA is to modulate the transduction of stress signals. Although it may regulate directly only a limited number of genes, these include elements of the signaling network, for example, members of the two-component signal transduction systems. AtfA acts in a stress-specific manner, which may increase further the number and diversity of AtfA-dependent genes. Our model sheds light on the versatility of the physiological functions of AtfA and its orthologs in fungi.

SUBMITTER: Orosz E

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5523550 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Transcriptome-Based Modeling Reveals that Oxidative Stress Induces Modulation of the AtfA-Dependent Signaling Networks in Aspergillus nidulans.

Orosz Erzsébet E Antal Károly K Gazdag Zoltán Z Szabó Zsuzsa Z Han Kap-Hoon KH Yu Jae-Hyuk JH Pócsi István I Emri Tamás T

International journal of genomics 20170709

To better understand the molecular functions of the master stress-response regulator AtfA in Aspergillus nidulans, transcriptomic analyses of the atfA null mutant and the appropriate control strains exposed to menadione sodium bisulfite- (MSB-), t-butylhydroperoxide- and diamide-induced oxidative stresses were performed. Several elements of oxidative stress response were differentially expressed. Many of them, including the downregulation of the mitotic cell cycle, as the MS ...[more]

PMID: 28770220

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Project description:The bZIP transcription factors (TFs) govern regulation of development, secondary metabolism and various stress responses in filamentous fungi. In this work, we carried out genome-wide expression studies employing Illumina RNAseq to understand the roles of the two bZIP transcription factors AtfA and AtfB in Aspergillus nidulans. Comparative analyses of transcriptomes of vegetatively grown cells (mycelia) and asexual spores (conidia) obtained from the surface cultures of control, DatfA, DatfB, DatfADatfB mutant strains with/without menadione sodium bisulfite (MSB) treatment were performed. Probable AtfA and AtfB dependent gene sets were determined by comparing transcriptomes of both single gene deletion mutants with the reference strain, and the double gene deletion mutant with the appropriate single gene deletion mutants. As AtfA is the primary bZip TF governing stress-response in A. nidulans, a significantly higher number was differentially expressed genes (DEGs) by DatfA than DatfB in both mycelial and conidial samples, and most of the AtfB dependent genes showed AtfA dependence, too. Moreover, a low number of genes showing AtfB dependence only can be a consequence of that DatfA leading to downregulation of atfB expression. The abundance of atfA and atfB mRNAs and, concurring with it the number of AtfA and AtfB affected genes were much higher in conidial than in mycelial samples. The number of AtfB- (but not of AtfA-) affected DEGs decreased markedly in the presence of MSB, which was accompanied with decreased mRNA levels of atfB in MSB treated mycelial (reference strain) and conidial (DatfA mutant) samples. The overlap between the AtfA dependent DEGs in the case of MSB treated and untreated mycelial samples was low demonstrating that distinct genes can be under AtfA control in different cell types. The AtfA-dependent DEGs were enriched with carbohydrate metabolism genes. Among them, AtfA-dependence of glycolytic genes in the case of the conidial samples was the most notable. Levels of transcripts of certain secondary metabolitic gene clusters, like the Emericellamide cluster also showed AtfA-dependent regulation. The AtfA affected DEGs under all experimental conditions include those encoding catalase and histidine-containing phosphotransfer proteins. The 23 DEGs that solely dependent on AtfB considering all transcriptomics data sets, included a putative a -glucosidase (agdB), a putative a-amylase, calA involved in early conidial germination and an alternative oxidase. In summary, there is a complex interaction between the two b-Zip TFs in which the main function of AtfB is supporting the regulatory role of the primary b-Zip TF AtfA in A. nidulans.

Project description:Transcription factors (TFs) with the basic leucin zipper domain are key elements of the stress response pathways in filamentous fungi. In this study, we functionally characterized the two bZIP type TFs AtfA and AtfB by deletion (Δ) and overexpression (OE) of their encoding genes in all combination: ΔatfA, ΔatfB, ΔatfAΔatfB, ΔatfAatfBOE, ΔatfBatfAOE, atfAOE, atfBOE and atfAOEatfBOE in Aspergillus nidulans. Based on our previous studies, ΔatfA increased the sensitivity of the fungus to oxidative stress mediated by menadione sodium bisulfite (MSB) and tert-butylhydroperoxide (tBOOH), while ΔatfB was not sensitive to any oxidative stress generating agents, namely MSB, tBOOH and diamide at all. Contrarily, the ΔatfB mutant was sensitive to NaCl, but tolerant to sorbitol. Overexpression of atfB was able to compensate the MSB sensitivity of the ΔatfA mutant. Heavy metal stress elicited by CdCl2 reduced diameter of the atfBOE and atfAOEatfBOE mutant colonies to about 50% of control colony, while the cell wall stress generating agent CongoRed increased the tolerance of the ΔatfA mutant. When we tested the heat stress sensitivity of the asexual spores (conidiospores) of the mutants, we found that conidiospores of ΔatfAatfBOE and ΔatfBatfAOE showed nearly 100% tolerance to heat stress. Asexual development was negatively affected by ΔatfA, while atfAOE and atfAOE coupled with ΔatfB increased the number of conidiospores of the fungus approximately 150% compared to the control. Overexpression of atfB led to a 25% reduction in the number of conidiospores, but increased levels of abaA mRNA and size of conidiospores. Sexual fruiting body (cleistothecium) formation was diminished in the ΔatfA and the ΔatfAΔatfB mutants, while relatively elevated in the ΔatfB and the ΔatfBatfAOE mutants. Production of the mycotoxin sterigmatocystin (ST) was decreased to undetectable levels in the ΔatfA mutant, yet ST production was restored in the ΔatfAΔatfB mutant, suggesting that ΔatfB can suppress ST production defect caused by ΔatfA. Levels of ST were also significantly decreased in the ΔatfAatfBOE, ΔatfBatfAOE and atfAOEatfBOE mutants.

Project description:The bZIP transcription factors (TFs) govern regulation of development, secondary metabolism, and various stress responses in filamentous fungi. In this work, we carried out genome-wide expression studies employing Illumina RNAseq to understand the roles of the two bZIP transcription factors AtfA and AtfB in Aspergillus nidulans. Comparative analyses of transcriptomes of control, ΔatfA, ΔatfB, and ΔatfAΔatfB mutant strains were performed. Dependence of a gene on AtfA (AtfB) was decided by its differential downregulation both between the reference and ΔatfA (ΔatfB) strains and between the ΔatfB (ΔatfA) and the ΔatfAΔatfB strains in vegetatively grown cells (mycelia) and asexual spores (conidia) of menadione sodium bisulfite (MSB)-treated or untreated cultures. As AtfA is the primary bZIP TF governing stress-response in A. nidulans, the number of differentially expressed genes for ΔatfA was significantly higher than for ΔatfB in both mycelial and conidial samples, and most of the AtfB-dependent genes showed AtfA dependence, too. Moreover, the low number of genes depending on AtfB but not on AtfA can be a consequence of ΔatfA leading to downregulation of atfB expression. Conidial samples showed much higher abundance of atfA and atfB mRNAs and more AtfA- and AtfB-affected genes than mycelial samples. In the presence of MSB, the number of AtfB- (but not of AtfA-) affected genes decreased markedly, which was accompanied with decreased mRNA levels of atfB in MSB-treated mycelial (reference strain) and conidial (ΔatfA mutant) samples. In mycelia, the overlap between the AtfA-dependent genes in MSB-treated and in untreated samples was low, demonstrating that distinct genes can be under AtfA control under different conditions. Carbohydrate metabolism genes were enriched in the set of AtfA-dependent genes. Among them, AtfA-dependence of glycolytic genes in conidial samples was the most notable. Levels of transcripts of certain secondary metabolitic gene clusters, such as the Emericellamide cluster, also showed AtfA-dependent regulation. Genes encoding catalase and histidine-containing phosphotransfer proteins showed AtfA-dependence under all experimental conditions. There were 23 AtfB-dependent genes that did not depend on AtfA under any of our experimental conditions. These included a putative α-glucosidase (agdB), a putative α-amylase, calA, which is involved in early conidial germination, and an alternative oxidase. In summary, in A. nidulans there is a complex interaction between the two bZIP transcription factors, where AtfA plays the primary regulatory role.

Project description:Genome wide transcriptional changes induced by various types of oxidative stresses as well as salt stress were studied in a DatfA mutant and the appropriate control A. nidulans strains. Although a significant number of stereotypically regulated genes was identified (Core Oxidative Stress Response or COSR genes) when the global transcriptional effects of five different oxidative stress conditions were compared the number of co-regulated genes decreased to 13 when NaCl stress was included into the analyses. The appearance of only a few co-regulated genes and the great number of genes regulated merely by one certain type of stress do not support the existence of a S. cerevisiae-type Environmental Stress Response in A. nidulans. Deletion of atfA, a true functional ortholog of fission yeast’s “all-purpose” stress response transcription factor, increased the oxidative stress sensitivity of A. nidulans and affected the transcription of several genes under both unstressed and stressed conditions. The number of genes under AtfA control was quite stress-type dependent; e.g. deletion of atfA altered the transcription of a wide spectrum of genes under menadione sodium bisulfite stress but had only a minor effect on the transcriptome profiles when A. nidulans cultures were exposed to H2O2, tBOOH, NaCl and, especially, to diamide stress. These observations suggest that the function of AtfA in the regulation of various stress responses is much smaller than we thought before or other transcription factors can take over a number of AtfA’s functions when the atfA gene is deleted. It is noteworthy that both oxidative and salt stress induced the transcription of some secondary metabolite gene clusters and the deletion of atfA enhanced the stress responsiveness of further clusters. Surprisingly, certain clusters were down-regulated by the stress conditions tested and the majority of them were not stress-responsive at all. Therefore, stress dependent regulation seems to be a frequent but far not a general feature of the regulation of secondary metabolism in A. nidulans.

Dataset Information

Transcriptome-Based Modeling Reveals that Oxidative Stress Induces Modulation of the AtfA-Dependent Signaling Networks in Aspergillus nidulans.

Publications

Transcriptome-Based Modeling Reveals that Oxidative Stress Induces Modulation of the AtfA-Dependent Signaling Networks in <i>Aspergillus nidulans</i>.

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