1. Academic Validation
  2. Drafting Penicillium oxalicum calcineurin-CrzA pathway by combining the analysis of phenotype, transcriptome, and endogenous protein-protein interactions

Drafting Penicillium oxalicum calcineurin-CrzA pathway by combining the analysis of phenotype, transcriptome, and endogenous protein-protein interactions

  • Fungal Genet Biol. 2022 Jan;158:103652. doi: 10.1016/j.fgb.2021.103652.
Kaili Zhao 1 Zhongjiao Liu 2 Mengxue Li 3 Yueyan Hu 4 Ling Yang 5 Xin Song 6 Yuqi Qin 7
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 National Glycoengineering Research Center, Shandong University, No. 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
  • 2 National Glycoengineering Research Center, Shandong University, No. 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
  • 3 National Glycoengineering Research Center, Shandong University, No. 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
  • 4 National Glycoengineering Research Center, Shandong University, No. 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China; State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology, Microbial Technology Institute, Shandong University, No. 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
  • 5 Vocational Education College, Dezhou University, Dezhou 253023, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
  • 6 National Glycoengineering Research Center, Shandong University, No. 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China; State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology, Microbial Technology Institute, Shandong University, No. 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
  • 7 National Glycoengineering Research Center, Shandong University, No. 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China; State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology, Microbial Technology Institute, Shandong University, No. 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
Abstract

Fungi sense environmental signals and coordinate growth, development, and metabolism accordingly. Calcium-calmodulin-calcineurin signaling is a conserved cascade pathway in fungi. One of the most important downstream targets of this pathway is the transcription factor Crz1/CrzA, which plays an essential role in various cellular processes. The putative collaborators of Penicillium oxalicum CrzA (PoCrzA) were found, through tandem affinity purification followed by mass spectrometric analysis (TAP-MS). A total of 50 protein-protein interaction collaborators of PoCrzA were observed. Among them, some collaborators, such as the catalytic subunit of calcineurin (Cna1, calcineurin A), the regulatory catalytic subunit of calcineurin (Cnb1, Calcineurin B), and a 14-3-3 protein Bmh1, which were previously reported in yeast, were identified. Some putative collaborators, including two karyopherins (exportin Los1 and importin Srp1), two kinases (Fus3 and Slt2p), and a general transcriptional corepressor (Cyc8), were also found. The CrzA deletion mutant ΔPocrzA exhibited slow hyphal growth, impaired conidiogenesis, and reduced extracellular cellulase synthesis. Phenotype and transcriptome analysis showed that PoCrzA regulated Fungal development in a Flbs-BrlA-dependent manner and participated in cellulase synthesis by modulating cellulolytic gene expression. On the basis of the results of TAP-MS, transcriptome, and phenotypic analysis in P. oxalicum, our study was the first to draft the calcineurin-CrzA pathway in cellulolytic fungi.

Keywords

Calcineurin; Calcium; Cellulase; Development; Fungi; Transcription factors.

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