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Expression of sexual genes in Aspergillus fumigatus homogeneous culture produced by vegetative mass mating

  • Microbial Genetics, Genomics and Molecular Biology
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Abstract

There are presently no studies on the genes for sexual development of Aspergillus fumigatus in situ using mating culture, primarily because of challenging experimental conditions that require a significantly long period of induction and produce developmentally heterogenous culture, harboring very few sexual organs. In order to overcome these challenges, we developed an efficient and convenient procedure called ‘vegetative mass mating (VeM)’ for study at a molecular level. The VeM method enabled production of a developmentally homogenous A. fumigatus culture, harboring many sexual organs in a plate within a short period of two weeks. Feasibility of the use of VeM for functional study of genes during A. fumigatus sexual development was evaluated by analyzing the transcription pattern of genes involved in pheromone signal transduction and regulation of sexual development. Here, we present for the first time, an in situ expression pattern of sexual genes during the mating process, induced by the VeM method, which will enable and promote the sexual development study of A. fumigatus at the molecular level.

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Acknowledgements

A special volunteer program was kindly provided to LJY by Dr. P. Williams and Dr. K.J. Kwon-Chung of the NIAID/NIH, USA. Travel and living expenses for the special volunteer program was funded by BK21+ CNUBioBC, Korea. This research was supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) by the Ministry of Education (Grant No. 2016-2307).

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  1. Department of Microbiology and Molecular Biology, College of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Chungnam National University, Daejeon, 34134, Republic of Korea

    Joo-Yeon Lim & Hee-Moon Park

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  1. Joo-Yeon Lim
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  2. Hee-Moon Park
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Correspondence to Hee-Moon Park.

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Lim, JY., Park, HM. Expression of sexual genes in Aspergillus fumigatus homogeneous culture produced by vegetative mass mating. J Microbiol. 57, 688–693 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12275-019-9094-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12275-019-9094-7

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