Identification and Genetic Characterization of Mitochondrial Citrate Transporters in

Overview

Journal Front Microbiol

Specialty Microbiology

Date 2022 Sep 30

PMID 36177470

Authors

Wei Cao

Licheng Zhang

Liu Wu

Mingyi Zhang

Jiao Liu

Zhoujie Xie

Hao Liu

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

is a major cell factory for citric acid production, and the process of citrate export from mitochondria to cytoplasm is predicted to be one of rate-limiting steps in citric acid accumulation. Currently, the mitochondrial citrate transporters (Ctps) in are not fully characterized. Here, six putative Ctp encoding genes ( to ) were identified based on their homology with a mitochondrial citrate transporter Ctp1 from . Disruption of individual to caused varying degrees of decline in citric acid accumulation at different fermentation stages, whereas a mutant strain S1696 with disruption of all six s showed complete loss of citiric acid production. S1696 also exhibited delayed growth, reduced conidia formation, and decreased pigmentogenesis. Exogenous addition of citrate partially restored the conidia formation and pigmentogenesis in S1696 mutant. Reintroduction of individual s ( to ) into S1696 at the locus showed that , , and restored the citric acid titers to 88.5, 93.8, and 94.6% of the parent strain, respectively. Additionally, the formation of conidia and pigment production was partially restored after reintroduction of , , or . Overexpression of respective , , and in the parent strain resulted in increases in citric acid accumulation by 32.8, 19.3, and 24.2%, respectively. These results demonstrate that CtpA, CtpB, and CtpD play important roles in citric acid transport across the mitochondrial membrane and function in a redundant manner. Enhancement of citric acid transport process can serve as a target for boosting citric acid accumulation in .

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