High-Affinity Glucose Transport in Aspergillus nidulans Is Mediated by the Products of Two Related but Differentially Expressed Genes

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 9; no. 4; p. e94662
• Main Authors: Forment, Josep V., Flipphi, Michel, Ventura, Luisa, González, Ramón, Ramón, Daniel, MacCabe, Andrew P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 01.04.2014; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Affinity; Aspergillus; Aspergillus nidulans; Aspergillus nidulans - genetics; Aspergillus nidulans - metabolism; Biological transport; Biological Transport - genetics; Biology and Life Sciences; Blotting, Northern; Carbon; Catabolite repression; Catabolite Repression - genetics; Conidia; DNA damage; Energy Metabolism - genetics; Fungal Proteins - genetics; Fungal Proteins - metabolism; Fungi; Gene expression; Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal; Genes; Genes, Fungal; Genetic aspects; Genomes; Genotype; Germination; Glucose; Glucose - metabolism; Glucose transport; Glucose Transport Proteins, Facilitative - genetics; Glucose Transport Proteins, Facilitative - metabolism; Glucose transporter; Hyphae; Molecular Sequence Data; Mutation; Mutation - genetics; Phylogeny; Physiological aspects; Proteins; Research and Analysis Methods; Saccharomyces cerevisiae; Spores, Fungal - genetics; Starvation; Substrate Specificity; Transporter; Spain
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0094662

Independent systems of high and low affinity effect glucose uptake in the filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans. Low-affinity uptake is known to be mediated by the product of the mstE gene. In the current work two genes, mstA and mstC, have been identified that encode high-affinity glucose transporter proteins. These proteins' primary structures share over 90% similarity, indicating that the corresponding genes share a common origin. Whilst the function of the paralogous proteins is little changed, they differ notably in their patterns of expression. The mstC gene is expressed during the early phases of germination and is subject to CreA-mediated carbon catabolite repression whereas mstA is expressed as a culture tends toward carbon starvation. In addition, various pieces of genetic evidence strongly support allelism of mstC and the previously described locus sorA. Overall, our data define MstC/SorA as a high-affinity glucose transporter expressed in germinating conidia, and MstA as a high-affinity glucose transporter that operates in vegetative hyphae under conditions of carbon limitation.