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A Single <i>Aspergillus fumigatus</i> Gene Enables Ergothioneine Biosynthesis and Secretion by <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i>
oleh: Sean Doyle, Daragh D. Cuskelly, Niall Conlon, David A. Fitzpatrick, Ciara B. Gilmartin, Sophia H. Dix, Gary W. Jones
| Format: | Article |
|---|---|
| Diterbitkan: | MDPI AG 2022-09-01 |
Deskripsi
The naturally occurring sulphur-containing histidine derivative, ergothioneine (EGT), exhibits potent antioxidant properties and has been proposed to confer human health benefits. Although it is only produced by select fungi and prokaryotes, likely to protect against environmental stress, the GRAS organism <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i> does not produce EGT naturally. Herein, it is demonstrated that the recombinant expression of a single gene, <i>Aspergillus fumigatus egtA</i>, in <i>S. cerevisiae</i> results in EgtA protein presence which unexpectedly confers complete EGT biosynthetic capacity. Both High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and LC–mass spectrometry (MS) analysis were deployed to detect and confirm EGT production in <i>S. cerevisiae</i>. The localisation and quantification of the resultant EGT revealed a significantly (<i>p</i> < 0.0001) larger quantity of EGT was extracellularly present in culture supernatants than intracellularly accumulated in 96 h yeast cultures. Methionine addition to cultures improved EGT production. The additional expression of two candidate cysteine desulfurases from <i>A. fumigatus</i> was thought to be required to complete EGT biosynthesis, namely AFUA_2G13295 and AFUA_3G14240, termed <i>egt2a</i> and <i>egt2b</i> in this study. However, the co-expression of <i>egtA</i> and <i>egt2a</i> in <i>S. cerevisiae</i> resulted in a significant decrease in the observed EGT levels (<i>p</i> < 0.05). The AlphaFold prediction of <i>A. fumigatus</i> EgtA 3-Dimensional structure illuminates the bidomain structure of the enzyme and the opposing locations of both active sites. Overall, we clearly show that recombinant <i>S. cerevisiae</i> can biosynthesise and secrete EGT in an EgtA-dependent manner which presents a facile means of producing EGT for biotechnological and biomedical use.