Faculdade de Ciências Farmacêuticas de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, Brazil.
Departamento de Genética e Evolução, Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde, Universidade Federal de São Carlos, São Carlos, Brazil.
mBio. 2020 Oct 13;11(5):e02458-20. doi: 10.1128/mBio.02458-20.
G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) are extracellular signaling receptors that sense environmental cues. Fungi sense their environment primarily through GPCR-mediated signaling pathways, which, in turn, regulate fungal development, metabolism, virulence, and mycotoxin biosynthesis. is an important human pathogen that causes aspergillosis, a heterogeneous group of diseases that present a wide range of clinical manifestations. Here, we investigate in detail the role of the GPCRs GprM and GprJ in growth and gene expression. GprM and GprJ are important for melanin production and the regulation of the cell wall integrity (CWI) pathway. Overexpression of and causes a 20 and 50% reduction in growth rate compared to the wild-type (WT) strain and increases sensitivity to cell wall-damaging agents. Phosphorylation of the CWI protein kinase MpkA is increased in the Δ and Δ strains and decreased in the overexpression mutants compared to the WT strain. Furthermore, differences in cell wall polysaccharide concentrations and organization were observed in these strains. Transcriptome sequencing suggests that GprM and GprJ negatively regulate genes encoding secondary metabolites (SMs). Mass spectrometry analysis confirmed that the production of fumagillin, pyripyropene, fumigaclavine C, fumiquinazoline, and fumitremorgin is reduced in the Δ and Δ strains, at least partially through the activation of MpkA. Overexpression of also resulted in the regulation of many transcription factors, with AsgA predicted to function downstream of GprM and MpkA signaling. Finally, we show that the Δ and Δ mutants are reduced in virulence in the insect model of invasive aspergillosis. is the main etiological agent of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis, a life-threatening fungal disease that occurs in severely immunocompromised humans. Withstanding the host environment is essential for virulence, and sensing of extracellular cues occurs primarily through G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) that activate signal transduction pathways, which, in turn, regulate fungal development, metabolism, virulence, and mycotoxin biosynthesis. The genome encodes 15 putative classical GPCRs, with only three having been functionally characterized to date. In this work, we show that the two GPCRs GprM and GprJ regulate the phosphorylation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase MpkA and thus control the regulation of the cell wall integrity pathway. GprM and GprJ are also involved in the regulation of the production of the secondary metabolites fumagillin, pyripyropene, fumigaclavine C, fumiquinazoline, melanin, and fumitremorgin, and this regulation partially occurs through the activation of MpkA. Furthermore, GprM and GprJ are important for virulence in the insect model This work therefore functionally characterizes two GPCRs and shows how they regulate several intracellular pathways that have been shown to be crucial for virulence.
G 蛋白偶联受体(GPCRs)是感知环境线索的细胞外信号受体。真菌主要通过 GPCR 介导的信号通路感知其环境,而这些信号通路反过来又调节真菌的发育、代谢、毒力和真菌毒素的生物合成。烟曲霉是一种重要的人类病原体,可引起曲霉病,这是一组表现出广泛临床表现的异质性疾病。在这里,我们详细研究了 GPCRs GprM 和 GprJ 在生长和基因表达中的作用。GprM 和 GprJ 对于黑色素的产生和细胞壁完整性(CWI)途径的调节很重要。与野生型(WT)菌株相比,和的过表达导致生长速度降低 20%和 50%,并增加对细胞壁破坏剂的敏感性。与 WT 菌株相比,Δ 和 Δ 菌株中 CWI 蛋白激酶 MpkA 的磷酸化增加,而过表达突变体中的磷酸化减少。此外,在这些菌株中观察到细胞壁多糖浓度和组织的差异。转录组测序表明,GprM 和 GprJ 负调控编码次级代谢物(SMs)的基因。质谱分析证实,在 Δ 和 Δ 菌株中, fumagillin、pyripyropene、fumigaclavine C、fumiquinazoline 和 fumitremorgin 的产量降低,至少部分是通过 MpkA 的激活。GprM 和 GprJ 的过表达也导致许多转录因子的调节,AsgA 预测作为 GprM 和 MpkA 信号下游的功能。最后,我们表明,Δ 和 Δ 突变体在侵袭性曲霉病的昆虫模型中毒力降低。烟曲霉是侵袭性肺曲霉病的主要病原体,这是一种发生在严重免疫功能低下的人类中的危及生命的真菌病。在宿主环境中存活对于毒力至关重要,而细胞外线索的感知主要通过 G 蛋白偶联受体(GPCRs)发生,这些受体激活信号转导途径,进而调节真菌的发育、代谢、毒力和真菌毒素的生物合成。基因组编码 15 个推定的经典 GPCRs,迄今为止只有 3 个具有功能特征。在这项工作中,我们表明,两个 GPCRs GprM 和 GprJ 调节丝裂原活化蛋白激酶 MpkA 的磷酸化,从而控制细胞壁完整性途径的调节。GprM 和 GprJ 还参与调节次级代谢物 fumagillin、pyripyropene、fumigaclavine C、fumiquinazoline、黑色素和 fumitremorgin 的产生,这种调节部分通过 MpkA 的激活发生。此外,GprM 和 GprJ 对昆虫模型中的毒力很重要。因此,这项工作对两个 GPCR 进行了功能表征,并展示了它们如何调节几个已被证明对毒力至关重要的细胞内途径。