Dataset Information

Cerato-Platanins from Marine Fungi as Effective Protein Biosurfactants and Bioemulsifiers.

ABSTRACT: Two fungal strains, Aspergillus terreus MUT 271 and Trichoderma harzianum MUT 290, isolated from a Mediterranean marine site chronically pervaded by oil spills, can use crude oil as sole carbon source. Herein, these strains were investigated as producers of biosurfactants, apt to solubilize organic molecules as a preliminary step to metabolize them. Both fungi secreted low molecular weight proteins identified as cerato-platanins, small, conserved, hydrophobic proteins, included among the fungal surface-active proteins. Both proteins were able to stabilize emulsions, and their capacity was comparable to that of other biosurfactant proteins and to commercially available surfactants. Moreover, the cerato-platanin from T. harzianum was able to lower the surface tension value to a larger extent than the similar protein from A. terreus and other amphiphilic proteins from fungi. Both cerato-platanins were able to make hydrophilic a hydrophobic surface, such as hydrophobins, and to form a stable layer, not removable even after surface washing. To the best of our knowledge, the ability of cerato-platanins to work both as biosurfactant and bioemulsifier is herein demonstrated for the first time.

SUBMITTER: Pitocchi R

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7215997 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Cerato-Platanins from Marine Fungi as Effective Protein Biosurfactants and Bioemulsifiers.

Pitocchi Rossana R Cicatiello Paola P Birolo Leila L Piscitelli Alessandra A Bovio Elena E Varese Giovanna Cristina GC Giardina Paola P

International journal of molecular sciences 20200421 8

Two fungal strains, <i>Aspergillus terreus</i> MUT 271 and <i>Trichoderma harzianum</i> MUT 290, isolated from a Mediterranean marine site chronically pervaded by oil spills, can use crude oil as sole carbon source. Herein, these strains were investigated as producers of biosurfactants, apt to solubilize organic molecules as a preliminary step to metabolize them. Both fungi secreted low molecular weight proteins identified as cerato-platanins, small, conserved, hydrophobic proteins, included amo ...[more]

PMID: 32326352

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Project description:Cerato-platanins (CPs) form a family of fungal small secreted cysteine-rich proteins (SSCPs) and are of particular interest not only because of their surface activity but also their abundant secretion by fungi. We performed an evolutionary analysis of 283 CPs from 157 fungal genomes with the focus on the environmental opportunistic plant-beneficial and mycoparasitic fungus Trichoderma Our results revealed a long evolutionary history of CPs in Dikarya fungi that have undergone several events of lateral gene transfer and gene duplication. Three genes were maintained in the core genome of Trichoderma, while some species have up to four CP-encoding genes. All Trichoderma CPs evolve under stabilizing natural selection pressure. The functional genomic analysis of CPs in Trichoderma guizhouense and Trichoderma harzianum revealed that only epl1 is active at all stages of development but that it plays a minor role in interactions with other fungi and bacteria. The deletion of this gene results in increased colonization of tomato roots by Trichoderma spp. Similarly, biochemical tests of EPL1 heterologously produced by Pichia pastoris support the claims described above. Based on the results obtained, we conclude that the function of CPs is probably linked to their surfactant properties and the ability to modify the hyphosphere of submerged mycelia and, thus, facilitate the nutritional versatility of fungi. The effector-like functions do not sufficiently describe the diversity and evolution of these proteins in fungi, as they are also maintained, duplicated, or laterally transferred in the genomes of nonherbivore fungi.IMPORTANCE Cerato-platanins (CPs) are surface-active small proteins abundantly secreted by filamentous fungi. Consequently, immune systems of plants and other organisms recognize CPs and activate defense mechanisms. Some CPs are toxic to plants and act as virulence factors in plant-pathogenic fungi. Our analysis, however, demonstrates that the interactions with plants do not explain the origin and evolution of CPs in the fungal kingdom. We revealed a long evolutionary history of CPs with multiple cases of gene duplication and events of interfungal lateral gene transfers. In the mycoparasitic Trichoderma spp., CPs evolve under stabilizing natural selection and hamper the colonization of roots. We propose that the ability to modify the hydrophobicity of the fungal hyphosphere is a key to unlock the evolutionary and functional paradox of these proteins.

Dataset Information

Cerato-Platanins from Marine Fungi as Effective Protein Biosurfactants and Bioemulsifiers.

Publications

Cerato-Platanins from Marine Fungi as Effective Protein Biosurfactants and Bioemulsifiers.

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