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Cadmium induces cadmium-tolerant gene expression in the filamentous fungus Trichoderma harzianum

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Abstract

The filamentous fungus Trichoderma harzianum, strain IMI 393899, was able to grow in the presence of the heavy metals cadmium and mercury. The main objective of this research was to study the molecular mechanisms underlying the tolerance of the fungus T. harzianum to cadmium. The suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH) method was used for the characterization of the genes of T. harzianum implicated in cadmium tolerance compared with those expressed in the response to the stress induced by mercury. Finally, the effects of cadmium exposure were also validated by measuring the expression levels of the putative genes coding for a glucose transporter, a plasma membrane ATPase, a Cd2+/Zn2+ transporter protein and a two-component system sensor histidine kinase YcbA, by real-time-PCR. By using the aforementioned SSH strategy, it was possible to identify 108 differentially expressed genes of the strain IMI 393899 of T. harzianum grown in a mineral substrate with the addition of cadmium. The expressed sequence tags identified by SSH technique were encoding different genes that may be involved in different biological processes, including those associated to primary and secondary metabolism, intracellular transport, transcription factors, cell defence, signal transduction, DNA metabolism, cell growth and protein synthesis. Finally, the results show that in the mechanism of tolerance to cadmium a possible signal transduction pathway could activate a Cd2+/Zn2+ transporter protein and/or a plasma membrane ATPase that could be involved in the compartmentalization of cadmium inside the cell.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the University of Catania PRA program Grants of Prof. Petrone and Prof. Cacciola. The Authors wish to thank Mrs. Ann Davies Muni for the English revision of the text.

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Dipartimento di Agricoltura, Alimentazione e Ambiente (Di3A), University of Catania, Via S. Sofia, 98-100, Catania, Italy

      Santa O. Cacciola, Ivana Puglisi, Roberto Faedda, Vincenzo Sanzaro, Antonella Pane, Angela R. Lo Piero, Maria Evoli & Goffredo Petrone

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    1. Santa O. Cacciola
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    2. Ivana Puglisi
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    3. Roberto Faedda
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    4. Vincenzo Sanzaro
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    6. Angela R. Lo Piero
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    7. Maria Evoli
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    8. Goffredo Petrone
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    Correspondence to Ivana Puglisi or Roberto Faedda.

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    Ivana Puglisi and Roberto Faedda have contributed equally to the research.

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    Cacciola, S.O., Puglisi, I., Faedda, R. et al. Cadmium induces cadmium-tolerant gene expression in the filamentous fungus Trichoderma harzianum . Mol Biol Rep 42, 1559–1570 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-015-3924-4

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-015-3924-4

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