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Natural Variation and the Role of Zn<sub>2</sub>Cys<sub>6</sub> Transcription Factors SdrA, WarA and WarB in Sorbic Acid Resistance of <i>Aspergillus niger</i>
oleh: Sjoerd J. Seekles, Jisca van Dam, Mark Arentshorst, Arthur F. J. Ram
Format: | Article |
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Diterbitkan: | MDPI AG 2022-01-01 |
Deskripsi
Weak acids, such as sorbic acid, are used as chemical food preservatives by the industry. Fungi overcome this weak-acid stress by inducing cellular responses mediated by transcription factors. In our research, a large-scale sorbic acid resistance screening was performed on 100 <i>A. niger sensu stricto</i> strains isolated from various sources to study strain variability in sorbic acid resistance. The minimal inhibitory concentration of undissociated (MIC<sub>u</sub>) sorbic acid at pH = 4 in the MEB of the <i>A. niger</i> strains varies between 4.0 mM and 7.0 mM, with the average out of 100 strains being 4.8 ± 0.8 mM, when scored after 28 days. MIC<sub>u</sub> values were roughly 1 mM lower when tested in commercial ice tea. Genome sequencing of the most sorbic-acid-sensitive strain among the isolates revealed a premature stop codon inside the sorbic acid response regulator encoding gene <i>sdrA</i>. Repairing this missense mutation increased the sorbic acid resistance, showing that the sorbic-acid-sensitive phenotype of this strain is caused by the loss of SdrA function. To identify additional transcription factors involved in weak-acid resistance, a transcription factor knock-out library consisting of 240 <i>A. niger</i> deletion strains was screened. The screen identified a novel transcription factor, WarB, which contributes to the resistance against a broad range of weak acids, including sorbic acid. The roles of SdrA, WarA and WarB in weak-acid resistance, including sorbic acid, were compared by creating single, double and the triple knock-out strains. All three transcription factors were found to have an additive effect on the sorbic acid stress response.