Fungi co-option of an insect protease gene for extracellular nutrient degradation and transcriptional control

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	Fungi co-option of an insect protease gene for extracellular nutrient degradation and transcriptional control
	Li, A.; Wong, K. H.
	2019-06-12
Source Publication	6th Macau Symposium on Biomedical Sciences 2019
Abstract	The ability to acquire nutrients from the environment is essential for all living organism. Fungi are extremely sensitive to what and how much nutrients are available in the environment, and this ability is mediated by elaborate transcription regulatory programs. In filamentous fungi, a highly conserved global transcriptional regulator AreA governs expression of genes involved in extracellular breakdown, uptake and metabolism of nitrogen nutrients. In this study, we identified a cross-kingdom horizontal transfer event of an insect protease gene, pnmB, in Aspergillus nidulans that serves not only to degrade extracellular nutrients as a secreted protease, but also to degrade the co-repressor (NmrA) of AreA for accelerating AreA transcriptional activation upon nitrogen starvation. The PnmB activities are largely controlled through up-regulation of pnmB expression in an AreA-dependent manner, which activates a positive feedback regulatory loop. Hence, our work uncovers a novel regulatory mechanism for rapid nitrogen starvation response and reveals a fascinating co-option of an insect protease gene by fungi for co-regulating an essential transcriptional program and extracellular nutrient breakdown. We hypothesize that this cross-kingdom horizontal gene transfer event provides a competitive growth advantage to A. nidulans in the wild where nutrients availability constantly changes.
Keyword	Fungi insect protease extracellular nutrient degradation transcriptional control
Language	英語English
The Source to Article	PB_Publication
PUB ID	46086
Document Type	Conference paper
Collection	DEPARTMENT OF BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES Faculty of Health Sciences
Corresponding Author	Wong, K. H.
Recommended Citation GB/T 7714	Li, A.,Wong, K. H.. Fungi co-option of an insect protease gene for extracellular nutrient degradation and transcriptional control[C], 2019.
APA	Li, A.., & Wong, K. H. (2019). Fungi co-option of an insect protease gene for extracellular nutrient degradation and transcriptional control. 6th Macau Symposium on Biomedical Sciences 2019.

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