Abstract
Aspergillus species are highly abundant fungi worldwide. Their conidia are among the most dominant fungal spores in the air. Conidia are formed in chains on the vesicle of the asexual reproductive structure called the conidiophore. Here, it is shown that the velvet protein VeA of Aspergillus niger maximizes the diameter of the vesicle and the spore chain length. The length and width of the conidiophore stalk and vesicle were reduced nearly twofold in a ΔveA strain. The latter implies a fourfold reduced surface area to develop chains of spores. Over and above this, the conidial chain length was approximately fivefold reduced. The calculated 20-fold reduction in formation of conidia by ΔveA fits the 8- to 17-fold decrease in counted spore numbers. Notably, morphology of the ΔveA conidiophores of A. niger was very similar to that of wild-type Aspergillus sydowii. This suggests that VeA is key in conidiophore architecture diversity in the fungal kingdom. The finding that biomass formation of the A. niger ΔveA strain was reduced twofold shows that VeA not only impacts dispersion capacity but also colonization capacity of A. niger.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bayram O, Braus GH (2011) Coordination of secondary metabolism and development in fungi: the velvet family of regulatory proteins. FEMS Microbiol Rev 36:1–24
Bayram O, Braus GH, Fischer R, Rodriguez-Romero J (2010) Spotlight on Aspergillus nidulans photosensory systems. Fungal Genet Biol 47:900–908
Bayram O, Krappmann S, Ni M, Bok JW, Helmstaedt K, Valerius O, Braus-Stromeyer S, Kwon NJ, Keller NP, Yu JH, Braus GH (2008a) VelB/VeA/LaeA complex coordinates light signal with fungal development and secondary metabolism. Science 320:1504–1506
Bayram O, Krappmann S, Seiler S, Vogt N, Braus GH (2008b) Neurospora crassa ve-1 affects asexual conidiation. Fungal Genet Biol 45:127–138
Bennett JW (2010) An overview of the genus Aspergillus. In: Machida M, Gomi K (eds) Aspergillus: molecular biology and genomics. Caiser Academic Press, Portland, pp 1–17
Bleichrodt R (2012) Intercompartmental streaming in Aspergillus. PhD Thesis, University of Utrecht
Bok JW, Keller NP (2004) LaeA, a regulator of secondary metabolism in Aspergillus spp. Eukaryot Cell 3:527–535
Calvo AM, Bok J, Brooks W, Keller NP (2004) veA is required for toxin and sclerotial production in Aspergillus parasiticus. Appl Environ Microbiol 70:4733–4739
Crespo-Sempere A, Marin S, Sanchis V, Ramos AJ (2013) VeA and LaeA transcriptional factors regulate ochratoxin A biosynthesis in Aspergillus carbonarius. Int J Food Microbiol 166:479–486
de Bekker C, Wiebenga A, Aguilar G, Wösten HAB (2009) An enzyme cocktail for efficient protoplast formation in Aspergillus niger. J Microbiol Methods 76:305–306
de Bekker C, Bruning O, Jonker MJ, Breit TM, Wösten HAB (2011) Single cell transcriptomics of neighboring hyphae of Aspergillus niger. Genome Biol 12:R71
Duran RM, Cary JW, Calvo AM (2007) Production of cyclopiazonic acid, aflatrem, and aflatoxin by Aspergillus flavus is regulated by veA, a gene necessary for sclerotial formation. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 73:1158–1168
Geiser DM (2009) Sexual structures in Aspergillus: morphology, importance and genomics. Med Mycol 47:S21–S26
Horton P, Nakai K (1997) Better prediction of protein cellular localization sites with the k nearest neighbors classifier. Intern Conf Intell Syst Mol Biol 5:147–152
Kim H, Han K, Kim K, Han D, Jahng K, Chae K (2002) The veA gene activates sexual development in Aspergillus nidulans. Fungal Genet Biol 37:72–80
Konzack S, Rischitor PE, Enke C, Fischer R (2005) The role of the kinesin motor KipA in microtubule organization and polarized growth of Aspergillus nidulans. Mol Biol Cell 16:497–506
Krappmann S, Bayram O, Braus GH (2005) Deletion and allelic exchange of the Aspergillus fumigatus veA locus via a novel recyclable marker module. Eukaryot Cell 4:1298–1307
Krijgsheld P, Bleichrodt R, van Veluw GJ, Wang F, Muller WH, Dijksterhuis J, Wösten HAB (2013) Development in Aspergillus. Stud Mycol 74:1–29
Lagopodi AL, Ram AFJ, Lamers GE, Punt PJ, van den Hondel CAMJJ, Lugtenberg BJ, Bloemberg GV (2002) Novel aspects of tomato root colonization and infection by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. radicis-lycopersici revealed by confocal laser scanning microscopic analysis using the green fluorescent protein as a marker. Mol Plant Microbe Interact 15:172–179
Li S, Myung K, Guse D, Donkin B, Proctor RH, Grayburn WS, Calvo AM (2006) FvVE1 regulates filamentous growth, the ratio of microconidia to macroconidia and cell wall formation in Fusarium verticillioides. Mol Microbiol 62:1418–1432
Merzlyak EM, Goedhart J, Shcherbo D, Bulina ME, Shcheglov AS, Fradkov AF, Gaintzeva A, Lukyanov KA, Lukyanov S, Gadella TW, Chudakov DM (2007) Bright monomeric red fluorescent protein with an extended fluorescence lifetime. Nat Methods 4:555–557
Myung K, Li S, Butchko RA, Busman M, Proctor RH, Abbas HK, Calvo AM (2009) FvVE1 regulates biosynthesis of the mycotoxins fumonisins and fusarins in Fusarium verticillioides. J Agric Food Chem 57:5089–5094
Ohm RA, de Jong JF, Berends E, Wang F, Wösten HAB, Lugones LG (2010) An efficient gene deletion procedure for the mushroom-forming basidiomycete Schizophyllum commune. World J Microbiol Biotechnol 26:1919–1923
Pel HJ, de Winde JH, Archer DB, Dyer PS, Hofmann G, Schaap PJ, Turner G, de Vries RP, Albang R, Albermann K, Andersen MR, Bendtsen JD, Benen JA, van den Berg M, Breestraat S, Caddick MX, Contreras R, Cornell M, Coutinho PM, Danchin EG, Debets AJ, Dekker P, van Dijck PW, van Dijk A, Dijkhuizen L, Driessen AJ, d’Enfert C, Geysens S, Goosen C, Groot GS, de Groot PW, Guillemette T, Henrissat B, Herweijer M, van den Hombergh JP, van den Hondel CA, van der Heijden RT, van der Kaaij RM, Klis FM, Kools HJ, Kubicek CP, van Kuyk PA, Lauber J, Lu X, van der Maarel MJ, Meulenberg R, Menke H, Mortimer MA, Nielsen J, Oliver SG, Olsthoorn M, Pal K, van Peij NN, Ram AF, Rinas U, Roubos JA, Sagt CM, Schmoll M, Sun J, Ussery D, Varga J, Vervecken W, van de Vondervoort PJ, Wedler H, Wösten HA, Zeng AP, van Ooyen AJ, Visser J, Stam H (2007) Genome sequencing and analysis of the versatile cell factory Aspergillus niger CBS 513.88. Nat Biotechnol 25:221–231
Punt PJ, Oliver RP, Dingemanse MA, Pouwels PH, van den Hondel CAMJJ (1987) Transformation of Aspergillus based on the hygromycin B resistance marker from Escherichia coli. Gene 56:117–124
Purschwitz J, Muller S, Kastner C, Fischer R (2006) Seeing the rainbow: light sensing in fungi. Curr Opin Microbiol 9:566–571
Sarikaya Bayram O, Bayram O, Valerius O, Park HS, Irniger S, Gerke J, Ni M, Han KH, Yu JH, Braus GH (2010) LaeA control of velvet family regulatory proteins for light-dependent development and fungal cell-type specificity. PLoS Genet 6:e1001226
Stinnett SM, Espeso EA, Cobeno L, Araujo-Bazan L, Calvo AM (2007) Aspergillus nidulans VeA subcellular localization is dependent on the importin alpha carrier and on light. Mol Microbiol 63:242–255
Svanstrom A, van Leeuwen MR, Dijksterhuis J, Melin P (2014) Trehalose synthesis in Aspergillus niger: characterization of six homologous genes, all with conserved orthologs in related species. BMC Microbiol 14:90
Vishniac W, Santer M (1957) The thiobacilli. Bacteriol Rev 21:195–213
Wösten HAB, Moukha SM, Sietsma JH, Wessels JGH (1991) Localization of growth and secretion of proteins in Aspergillus niger. J Gen Microbiol 137:2017–2023
Wyatt TT, van Leeuwen MR, Wösten HAB, Dijksterhuis J (2014) Mannitol is essential for the development of stress resistant ascospores of Neosartorya fischeri. Fungal Genet Biol 64:11–24
Yang L, Ukil L, Osmani A, Nahm F, Davies J, De Souza CP, Dou X, Perez-Balaguer A, Osmani SA (2004) Rapid production of gene replacement constructs and generation of a green fluorescent protein-tagged centromeric marker in Aspergillus nidulans. Eukaryot Cell 3:1359–1362
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wang, F., Dijksterhuis, J., Wyatt, T. et al. VeA of Aspergillus niger increases spore dispersing capacity by impacting conidiophore architecture. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 107, 187–199 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10482-014-0316-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10482-014-0316-z