{"title":"Dysfunction of Ras-GAP protein AfgapA contributes to hypoxia fitness in Aspergillus fumigatus.","authors":"Cai Bian, Yoko Kusuya, Daisuke Hagiwara, Sayaka Ban, Yu Lu, Masaki Nagayama, Hiroki Takahashi","doi":"10.1007/s00294-022-01249-9","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The filamentous fungus Aspergillus fumigatus is the most important pathogenic fungus among Aspergillus species associated with aspergillosis. A. fumigatus must adapt to hypoxic microenvironments to survive and thrive in human lungs. To gain further insights into hypoxic adaptation, we generated a laboratory-evolved strain (Afs35-G20) harboring hypoxia fitness, and identified a nonsense mutation in AfgapA encoding a Ras-GAP protein, which could result in the deletion of 22 amino acids at the C-terminus. We investigated the role of AfgapA in hypoxia fitness by constructing Afs35-G20-AfgapA<sup>WT</sup>, and ∆AfgapA. Indeed, the hypoxia fitness of Afs35-G20 was reversed by introducing AfgapA<sup>WT</sup>. ∆AfgapA exhibited greater hypoxia fitness and hypervirulence in the silkworm infection model, indicating that AfgapA is responsible for hypoxia fitness, particularly in liquid cultures. Taken together, the AfgapA dysfunction may lead to the downregulation of its Ras substrate(s), reflecting several phenotypes such as increased hypoxia fitness, hypervirulence, poor conidiation, and conidial pigmentation. Here, we report the function of a Ras-GAP protein AfgapA in A. fumigatus for the first time.</p>","PeriodicalId":10918,"journal":{"name":"Current Genetics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.8000,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Current Genetics","FirstCategoryId":"99","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00294-022-01249-9","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2022/8/8 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"GENETICS & HEREDITY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The filamentous fungus Aspergillus fumigatus is the most important pathogenic fungus among Aspergillus species associated with aspergillosis. A. fumigatus must adapt to hypoxic microenvironments to survive and thrive in human lungs. To gain further insights into hypoxic adaptation, we generated a laboratory-evolved strain (Afs35-G20) harboring hypoxia fitness, and identified a nonsense mutation in AfgapA encoding a Ras-GAP protein, which could result in the deletion of 22 amino acids at the C-terminus. We investigated the role of AfgapA in hypoxia fitness by constructing Afs35-G20-AfgapAWT, and ∆AfgapA. Indeed, the hypoxia fitness of Afs35-G20 was reversed by introducing AfgapAWT. ∆AfgapA exhibited greater hypoxia fitness and hypervirulence in the silkworm infection model, indicating that AfgapA is responsible for hypoxia fitness, particularly in liquid cultures. Taken together, the AfgapA dysfunction may lead to the downregulation of its Ras substrate(s), reflecting several phenotypes such as increased hypoxia fitness, hypervirulence, poor conidiation, and conidial pigmentation. Here, we report the function of a Ras-GAP protein AfgapA in A. fumigatus for the first time.
期刊介绍:
Current Genetics publishes genetic, genomic, molecular and systems-level analysis of eukaryotic and prokaryotic microorganisms and cell organelles. All articles are peer-reviewed. The journal welcomes submissions employing any type of research approach, be it analytical (aiming at a better understanding), applied (aiming at practical applications), synthetic or theoretical.
Current Genetics no longer accepts manuscripts describing the genome sequence of mitochondria/chloroplast of a small number of species. Manuscripts covering sequence comparisons and analyses that include a large number of species will still be considered.