Abstract
Objectives
The transport of citrate from the mitochondria to the cytoplasm is essential during lipid accumulation. This study aimed to explore the role of mitochondrial citrate-oxoglutarate carrier in lipid accumulation in the oleaginous fungus Mortierella alpina.
Results
Homologous MaYHM (the gene encoding the mitochondrial citrate-oxoglutarate carrier) was overexpressed in M. alpina. The fatty acid content of MaYHM-overexpressing recombinant strains was increased by up to 30% compared with the control. Moreover, the intracellular α-ketoglutarate level in recombinant strains was increased by 2.2 fold, together with a 23–35% decrease in NAD+-isocitrate dehydrogenase activity compared with the control. The overexpression of MaYHM altered the metabolic flux in the glutamate dehydrogenase shunt and 4-aminobutyric acid shunt during metabolic reprogramming, supplying more carbon to synthesize fatty acids.
Conclusions
Overexpression of MaYHM resulted in more efflux of citrate from mitochondria to the cytoplasm and enhanced lipid accumulation. These findings provide new perspectives for the improvement of industrial lipid production in M. alpina.
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Funding
This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31901659, 31722041), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (JUSRP51702A), the Project funded by China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2017M611701), the Postdoctoral Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (1701061C), the National First-class Discipline Program of Food Science and Technology (JUFSTR20180102), and the Jiangsu Province “Collaborative Innovation Center for Food Safety and Quality Control.”
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FZL and XT carried out the experiments and drafted the manuscript. HZ, YQC, JXZ and HQC analyzed the data and drafted the manuscript. XT, HQC and WC conceived and designed the study and revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Supplementary Table 1 Strains and plasmids used in this study.
Supplementary Table 2 Oligonucleotide primers used for PCR and RT-qPCR in this study.
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Ling, F., Tang, X., Zhang, H. et al. Role of the mitochondrial citrate-oxoglutarate carrier in lipid accumulation in the oleaginous fungus Mortierella alpina. Biotechnol Lett 43, 1455–1466 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-021-03133-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-021-03133-x