Journal
JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL AND FOOD CHEMISTRY
Volume 70, Issue 7, Pages 2169-2178Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.1c08160
Keywords
Aspergillus niger; bZIP transcription factor; ochratoxin A; fungal growth; gene knockout; gene expression; regulation
Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [31471725, 31902193]
- Shandong Province Key Research and Development Project of China (Fostering Leading Talent Project) [2016GRC3201]
- Tianjin Municipal Science and Technology Plan Project of China [20JCZDJC00140]
- Open Project Program of Key Laboratory of Pathogenic Fungi and Mycotoxins of Fujian Province [114/PTJH13004]
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This study characterized the role of AnOTAbZIP in morphological development, OTA biosynthesis, and pathogenicity in A. niger. It was found that AnOTAbZIP positively regulates OTA biosynthesis, affects pathogenicity on grape berries, and enhances oxidative stress tolerance.
The ochratoxin A (OTA) biosynthetic gene cluster includes a bZIP transcription factor (TF) gene (OTAbzip) that has been identified in different fungal species. However, most previous studies identified the OTAbzip gene in ochratoxigenic fungi using bioinformatics methods, while few studies focused on deleting the gene, let alone overexpressing it, to characterize the function of the OTAbZIP TF. Here, we characterized the AnOTAbZIP TF in an ochratoxigenic isolate of Aspergillus niger by deleting and overexpressing the AnOTAbzip gene and examining the role of AnOTAbZIP in morphological development, OTA biosynthesis, and pathogenicity. Chemical and gene expression analyses revealed that AnOTAbZIP positively regulates OTA biosynthesis, since the loss of OTA production and the downregulation of the OTA biosynthetic genes were observed in the Delta AnOTAbzip strain, compared with the wild-type (WT) and OE::AnOTAbzip strains. In terms of pathogenicity, the Delta AnOTAbzip strain produced a greater lesion on grape berries, especially with respect to the OE::AnOTAbzip strain, rather than WT. Finally, the Delta AnOTAbzip strain was also more tolerant to oxidative stress with respect to the OE::AnOTAbzip and WT strains in that order. These new findings improve our understanding of the AnOTAbZIP regulatory mechanism and help develop strategies to attenuate plant pathogenicity and reduce OTA biosynthesis of A. niger.
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