Open AccessRevisiting a ‘simple’ fungal metabolic pathway reveals redundancy, complexity and diversity
Author(s) -
Chroumpi Tania,
Peng Mao,
AguilarPontes Maria Victoria,
Müller Astrid,
Wang Mei,
Yan Juying,
Lipzen Anna,
Ng Vivian,
Grigoriev Igor V.,
Mäkelä Miia R.,
Vries Ronald P.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
microbial biotechnology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.287
H-Index - 74
ISSN - 1751-7915
DOI - 10.1111/1751-7915.13790
Subject(s) - aspergillus niger , metabolic pathway , pentose phosphate pathway , catabolism , xylose , biology , pentose , biochemistry , metabolic engineering , mutant , metabolic network , enzyme , gene , computational biology , glycolysis , fermentation
Summary Next to d ‐glucose, the pentoses l ‐arabinose and d ‐xylose are the main monosaccharide components of plant cell wall polysaccharides and are therefore of major importance in biotechnological applications that use plant biomass as a substrate. Pentose catabolism is one of the best‐studied pathways of primary metabolism of Aspergillus niger , and an initial outline of this pathway with individual enzymes covering each step of the pathway has been previously established. However, although growth on l ‐arabinose and/or d ‐xylose of most pentose catabolic pathway (PCP) single deletion mutants of A . niger has been shown to be negatively affected, it was not abolished, suggesting the involvement of additional enzymes. Detailed analysis of the single deletion mutants of the known A . niger PCP genes led to the identification of additional genes involved in the pathway. These results reveal a high level of complexity and redundancy in this pathway, emphasizing the need for a comprehensive understanding of metabolic pathways before entering metabolic engineering of such pathways for the generation of more efficient fungal cell factories.