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Fungal variegatic acid and extracellular polysaccharides promote the site-specific generation of reactive oxygen species

  • Biocatalysis - Original Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology

Abstract

This study aims to clarify the role of variegatic acid (VA) in fungal attack by Serpula lacrymans, and also the generation and scavenging of reactive oxygen species (ROS) by the fungus. VA promotes a mediated Fenton reaction to generated ROS after oxalate solubilizes oxidized forms of iron. The fungal extracellular matrix (ECM) β-glucan scavenged ROS, and we propose this as a mechanism to protect the fungal hyphae while ROS generation is promoted to deconstruct the lignocellulose cell wall. A relatively high pH (4.4) also favored Fe(III) transfer from oxalate to VA as opposed to a lower pH (2.2) conditions, suggesting a pH-dependent Fe(III) transfer to VA employed by S. lacrymans. This permits ROS generation within the higher pH of the cell wall, while limiting ROS production near the fungal hyphae, while β-glucan from the fungal ECM scavenges ROS in the more acidic environments surrounding the fungal hyphae.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported in part by the Forestry Industry Research Special Funds for Public Welfare Projects (#201204702-B2), and was also supported in part by the USDA-HATCH Project S-1041 VA-136288, and by The Research Council of Norway (243663/E50 BioMim). Mr. Zhu was financially supported by China Scholarship Council (#201406510014). We thank Dr. Xueyang Feng for providing access to the NanoDrop 2000c spectrophotometer. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. MOE Key Laboratory of Wooden Material Science and Application, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, China

    Yuan Zhu & Jinzhen Cao

  2. Department of Sustainable Biomaterials, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA

    Yuan Zhu & Barry Goodell

  3. Edward Via Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine, Blacksburg, VA, USA

    James Mahaney

  4. Center for Agriculture, Food and the Environment, 319 Stockbridge Hall, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA

    Jody Jellison

  5. Department of Pharmaceutical Microbiology at the Hans Knöll Institute, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Jena, Germany

    Julia Gressler & Dirk Hoffmeister

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  1. Yuan Zhu
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Zhu, Y., Mahaney, J., Jellison, J. et al. Fungal variegatic acid and extracellular polysaccharides promote the site-specific generation of reactive oxygen species. J Ind Microbiol Biotechnol 44, 329–338 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10295-016-1889-5

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