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PMID: 20132440 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

Heterochromatic marks are associated with the repression of secondary metabolism clusters in Aspergillus nidulans.

Molecular microbiology ·Vol. 76 ·No. 6 ·2010-06-00 ·Pages 1376-86

Reyes-Dominguez Y, Bok JW, Berger H, Shwab EK, Basheer A, Gallmetzer A, Scazzocchio C, Keller N, Strauss J

Abstract

Fungal secondary metabolites are important bioactive compounds but the conditions leading to expression of most of the putative secondary metabolism (SM) genes predicted by fungal genomics are unknown. Here we describe a novel mechanism involved in SM-gene regulation based on the finding that, in Aspergillus nidulans, mutants lacking components involved in heterochromatin formation show de-repression of genes involved in biosynthesis of sterigmatocystin (ST), penicillin and terrequinone A. During the active growth phase, the silent ST gene cluster is marked by histone H3 lysine 9 trimethylation and contains high levels of the heterochromatin protein-1 (HepA). Upon growth arrest and activation of SM, HepA and trimethylated H3K9 levels decrease concomitantly with increasing levels of acetylated histone H3. SM-specific chromatin modifications are restricted to genes located inside the ST cluster, and constitutive heterochromatic marks persist at loci immediately outside the cluster. LaeA, a global activator of SM clusters in fungi, counteracts the establishment of heterochromatic marks. Thus, one level of regulation of the A. nidulans ST cluster employs epigenetic control by H3K9 methylation and HepA binding to establish a repressive chromatin structure and LaeA is involved in reversal of this heterochromatic signature inside the cluster, but not in that of flanking genes.

MeSH Terms
Acetylation Aspergillus nidulans/genetics,metabolism Fungal Proteins/biosynthesis Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal Heterochromatin/metabolism Histones/metabolism Indoles/metabolism Methylation Multigene Family Penicillins/metabolism Sterigmatocystin/metabolism
Chemicals
Fungal Proteins Heterochromatin Histones Indoles Penicillins terrequinone A Sterigmatocystin
Authors & Affiliations
9 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Reyes-Dominguez Yazmid
Fungal Genetics and Genomics Unit, Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT) and University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences (BOKU) Vienna, Austria.
Bok Jin Woo
Berger Harald
Shwab E Keats
Basheer Asjad
Gallmetzer Andreas
Scazzocchio Claudio
Keller Nancy
Strauss Joseph
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Article Info
Journal
Molecular microbiology
Abbr.
Mol Microbiol
ISSN
1365-2958
DOI
10.1111/j.1365-2958.2010.07051.x
Published
2010-06-00
Epub
2010-00-01
Pages
1376-86
Language
English
Region
England
NLM ID
8712028
PMCID
PMC2904488
Subset
IM
Grants
PHS HHS · 1 R01 AL065728-01 · United States
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2958.2010.07051.x PMC Full Text View journal details
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