Control of Development, Secondary Metabolism and Light-Dependent Carotenoid Biosynthesis by the Velvet Complex of .

is an established reference organism to investigate carotene biosynthesis and light regulation. However, there is little evidence of its capacity to produce secondary metabolites. Here, we report the role of the fungal-specific regulatory velvet complexes in development and secondary metabolism (SM) in Three velvet proteins VE-1, VE-2, VOS-1, and a putative methyltransferase LAE-1 show light-independent nucleocytoplasmic localization. Two distinct velvet complexes, a heterotrimeric VE-1/VE-2/LAE-1 and a heterodimeric VE-2/VOS-1 are found The heterotrimer-complex, which positively regulates sexual development and represses asexual sporulation, suppresses siderophore coprogen production under iron starvation conditions. The VE-1/VE-2 heterodimer controls carotene production. VE-1 regulates the expression of >15% of the whole genome, comprising mainly regulatory and developmental features. We also studied intergenera functions of the velvet complex through complementation of , , , mutants with their orthologs , , , and , respectively. Expression of VE-1 and VE-2 in successfully substitutes the developmental and SM functions of VeA and VelB by forming two functional chimeric velvet complexes , VelB/VE-1/LaeA and VE-2/VeA/LaeA, respectively. Reciprocally, expression of restores the phenotypes of the mutant. All velvet proteins heterologously expressed in are localized to the nuclear fraction independent of light. These data highlight the conservation of the complex formation in and However, they also underline the intergenera similarities and differences of velvet roles according to different life styles, niches and ontogenetic processes.