Abstract
The fungi Fusarium oxysporum and Fusarium fujikuroi produce carotenoids, lipophilic terpenoid pigments of biotechnological interest, with xanthophyll neurosporaxanthin as the main end product. Their carotenoid biosynthesis is activated by light and negatively regulated by the RING-finger protein CarS. Global transcriptomic analysis identified in both species a putative 1-kb lncRNA that we call carP, referred to as Fo-carP and Ff-carP in each species, upstream to the gene carS and transcribed from the same DNA strand. Fo-carP and Ff-carP are poorly transcribed, but their RNA levels increase in carS mutants. The deletion of Fo-carP or Ff-carP in the respective species results in albino phenotypes, with strong reductions in mRNA levels of structural genes for carotenoid biosynthesis and higher mRNA content of the carS gene, which could explain the low accumulation of carotenoids. Upon alignment, Fo-carP and Ff-carP show 75–80% identity, with short insertions or deletions resulting in a lack of coincident ORFs. Moreover, none of the ORFs found in their sequences have indications of possible coding functions. We conclude that Fo-carP and Ff-carP are regulatory lncRNAs necessary for the active expression of the carotenoid genes in Fusarium through an unknown molecular mechanism, probably related to the control of carS function or expression.
Highlights
The fungi Fusarium oxysporum and Fusarium fujikuroi produce carotenoids, lipophilic terpenoid pigments of biotechnological interest, with xanthophyll neurosporaxanthin as the main end product
Most studies on long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) have been dedicated to higher eukaryotes, especially mammals, but they are present in all taxonomic groups, including plants[34] and microorganisms, such as the yeasts Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Schizosaccharomyces pombe[35]
In Fusarium graminearum, a search identified 2574 lncRNAs, of which 1040 were antisense transcripts, and 547 exhibited differential expression associated to the formation of fruiting bodies[37]
Summary
The fungi Fusarium oxysporum and Fusarium fujikuroi produce carotenoids, lipophilic terpenoid pigments of biotechnological interest, with xanthophyll neurosporaxanthin as the main end product Their carotenoid biosynthesis is activated by light and negatively regulated by the RING-finger protein CarS. CryD photoactivity has been demonstrated biochemically[15], but only minor effects were found in the mRNA levels of car genes in ΔcryD mutants after illumination, suggesting its participation in a post-transcriptional regulatory mechanism Another photoreceptor protein www.nature.com/scientificreports that participates in the regulation of carotenogenesis by light in Fusarium is VvdA, an orthologue of the Vivid protein of N. crassa, which supposedly counteracts WcoA activity[16]. CarS and CrgA contain a LON protease domain, whose function has not been determined
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