Keietsu Abe

Lactobacillus sp. strain E1 catalyzed the decarboxylation of glutamate (Glu), resulting in a nearly stoichiometric release of the products gamma-aminobutyrate (GABA) and CO2. This decarboxylation was associated with the net synthesis of ATP. ATP synthesis was inhibited almost completely by nigericin and about 70% by N,N'-dicyclohexylcarbodiimide (DCCD), without inhibition of the decarboxylation. These findings are consistent with the possibility that a proton motive force arises from the cytopla

Cell wall integrity signaling (CWIS) maintains cell wall biogenesis in fungi, but only a few transcription factors (TFs) and target genes downstream of the CWIS cascade in filamentous fungi are known. Because a mitogen-activated protein kinase (MpkA) is a key CWIS enzyme, the transcriptional regulation of mpkA and of cell wall-related genes (CWGs) is important in cell wall biogenesis. We cloned Aspergillus nidulans mpkA; rlmA, a TF gene orthologous to Saccharomyces cerevisiae RLM1 that encodes R

Although α-1,3-glucan is a major cell wall polysaccharide in filamentous fungi, its biological functions remain unclear, except that it acts as a virulence factor in animal and plant pathogenic fungi: it conceals cell wall β-glucan on the fungal cell surface to circumvent recognition by hosts. However, cell wall α-1,3-glucan is also present in many of non-pathogenic fungi. Recently, the universal function of α-1,3-glucan as an aggregation factor has been demonstrated. Applications of fungi with

Aspergillus species are among the most important filamentous fungi from the viewpoints of industry, pathogenesis, and mycotoxin production. Fungal cells are exposed to a variety of environmental stimuli, including changes in osmolality, temperature, and pH, which create stresses that primarily act on fungal cell walls. In addition, fungal cell walls are the first interactions with host cells in either human or plants. Thus, understanding cell wall structure and the mechanism of their biogenesis

Although α-1,3-glucan is one of the major cell wall polysaccharides in filamentous fungi, the physiological roles of α-1,3-glucan remain unclear. The model fungus Aspergillus nidulans possesses two α-1,3-glucan synthase (AGS) genes, agsA and agsB. For functional analysis of these genes, we constructed several mutant strains in A. nidulans: agsA disruption, agsB disruption, and double-disruption strains. We also constructed several CagsB strains in which agsB expression was controlled by the indu

We examined the idea that aspartate metabolism by Lactobacillus subsp. M3 is organized as a proton-motive metabolic cycle by using reconstitution to monitor the activity of the carrier, termed AspT, expected to carry out the electrogenic exchange of precursor (aspartate) and product (alanine). Membranes of Lactobacillus subsp. M3 were extracted with 1.25% octyl glucoside in the presence of 0. 4% Escherichia coli phospholipid and 20% glycerol. The extracts were then used to prepare proteoliposome

ABSTRACT Hydrophobic surface binding protein A (HsbA) is a secreted protein (14.5 kDa) isolated from the culture broth of Aspergillus oryzae RIB40 grown in a medium containing polybutylene succinate- co -adipate (PBSA) as a sole carbon source. We purified HsbA from the culture broth and determined its N-terminal amino acid sequence. We found a DNA sequence encoding a protein whose N terminus matched that of purified HsbA in the A. ozyzae genomic sequence. We cloned the hsbA genomic DNA and cDNA

Summary When fungi grow on plant or insect surfaces coated with wax polyesters that protect against pathogens, the fungi generally form aerial hyphae to contact the surfaces. Aerial structures such as hyphae and conidiophores are coated with hydrophobins, which are surface‐active proteins involved in adhesion to hydrophobic surfaces. When the industrial fungus Aspergillus oryzae was cultivated in a liquid medium containing the biodegradable polyester polybutylene succinate‐coadipate (PBSA), the

OxlT is the oxalate/formate exchange protein that represents the vectorial component of a proton-motive metabolic cycle in Oxalobacter formigenes. Here we report the cloning and sequencing of OxlT and describe its expression in Escherichia coli. The OxlT amino acid sequence specifies a polytopic hydrophobic protein of 418 residues with a mass of 44,128 daltons. Analysis of hydropathy and consideration of the distribution of charged residues suggests an OxlT secondary structure having 12 transmem

Tetragenococcus halophila D10 catalyzes the decarboxylation of L-aspartate with nearly stoichiometric release of L-alanine and CO(2). This trait is encoded on a 25-kb plasmid, pD1. We found in this plasmid a putative asp operon consisting of two genes, which we designated aspD and aspT, encoding an L-aspartate-beta-decarboxylase (AspD) and an aspartate-alanine antiporter (AspT), respectively, and determined the nucleotide sequences. The sequence analysis revealed that the genes of the asp operon

Filamentous fungi generally form aggregated hyphal pellets in liquid culture. We previously reported that α-1,3-glucan-deficient mutants of <i>Aspergillus nidulans</i> did not form hyphal pellets and their hyphae were fully dispersed, and we suggested that α-1,3-glucan functions in hyphal aggregation. However, <i>Aspergillus oryzae</i> α-1,3-glucan-deficient (AGΔ) mutants still form small pellets; therefore, we hypothesized that another factor responsible for forming hyphal pellets remains in th

Under liquid culture conditions, the hyphae of filamentous fungi aggregate to form pellets, which reduces cell density and fermentation productivity. Previously, we found that loss of α-1,3-glucan in the cell wall of the fungus Aspergillus nidulans increased hyphal dispersion. Therefore, here we constructed a mutant of the industrial fungus A. oryzae in which the three genes encoding α-1,3-glucan synthase were disrupted (tripleΔ). Although the hyphae of the tripleΔ mutant were not fully disperse