8 Coordination of Fungal Secondary Metabolism and Development
JENNIFER GERKE
1
, ANNA M. KO ¨ HLER
1
, CINDY MEISTER
1
, KARL G. THIEME
1
, HUGO AMOEDO
1
,
GERHARD H. BRAUS
1
CONTENTS
I. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
A. Fungal Differentiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
B. Fungal Secondary Metabolism . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
II. Transcriptional Networks Linked to Signal
Transduction Pathways Control Development
and Secondary Metabolism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
A. Transcriptional Networks Interact in Fungal
Morphogenic Transitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
B. Gene Expression for Secondary Metabolite
Production Is Interconnected with
Morphological Differentiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
III. Epigenetics and Fungal Secondary Metabolism
and Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
A. DNA and Histone Methylation and
Demethylation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
B. Histone Acetylation and Deacetylation . . . . 186
C. Histone Phosphorylation, Ubiquitination,
and Sumoylation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
D. Epigenetic Tools to Activate Silenced Gene
Clusters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
IV. The Role of Ubiquitination and
Deubiquitination in Fungal Development and
Secondary Metabolism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
A. The Ubiquitin Attachment Machinery
Influences Fungal Development and
Secondary Metabolism on Several Layers . . 189
B. Controlled Removal of Ubiquitin Family
Proteins from Substrates Is Important for
Fungal Growth and Development . . . . . . . . . . 191
V. Protein Degradation Pathways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
A. Protein Degradation by the 26S
Proteasome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
B. Degradation by Autophagy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
VI. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
I. Introduction
Fungi are ubiquitous lifeforms that can grow in
a wide range of diverse environments. Based on
current phylogenetic analyses, the fungal kingdom is divided into 8 phyla with 12 subphyla
and 46 classes (Spatafora et al. 2017). The two
monophyletic groups of Ascomycota and Basidiomycota form together the subkingdom of
Dikarya. Many fungi have a saprophytic lifestyle. They live on decaying organic matter as
principal decomposers of our ecosystem. Fungi
play important roles in our food industry to
make cheese, ferment soybeans, or brew beer
and in the pharma industry to produce drugs
(Gerke and Braus 2014). But their appearance
can also be harmful to us. Fungal spores are
dispersed through the air and can be inhaled
into our lungs where most of them are inactivated as long as the immune system is not
compromised (Shlezinger et al. 2017). Fungi
are responsible for many diseases in humans
and animals, ranging from allergies to lifethreatening intoxications and mycoses. The
infection of plants and contamination of harvest products by fungi lead to high economic
losses and are a threat for food supply and
safety (Meyer et al. 2016). In fungi, differentiation processes, including the formation of
infection structures, are closely linked to the
production of specific chemicals. These
interconnected processes and their regulations
are the main focus of this chapter.
1 Institut fu ¨r Mikrobiologie und Genetik, Abteilung Molekulare Mikrobiologie und Genetik, Go ¨ttinger Zentrum fu ¨r Molekulare Biowissenschaften (GZMB), Georg-August-Universita ¨t
Go ¨ttingen, Go ¨ttingen, Germany; e-mail: gbraus@gwdg.de
Genetics and Biotechnology, 3 rd Edition
The Mycota II
J.P. Benz, K. Schipper (Eds.)
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
JENNIFER GERKE
1
, ANNA M. KO ¨ HLER
1
, CINDY MEISTER
1
, KARL G. THIEME
1
, HUGO AMOEDO
1
,
GERHARD H. BRAUS
1
CONTENTS
I. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
A. Fungal Differentiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
B. Fungal Secondary Metabolism . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
II. Transcriptional Networks Linked to Signal
Transduction Pathways Control Development
and Secondary Metabolism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
A. Transcriptional Networks Interact in Fungal
Morphogenic Transitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
B. Gene Expression for Secondary Metabolite
Production Is Interconnected with
Morphological Differentiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
III. Epigenetics and Fungal Secondary Metabolism
and Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
A. DNA and Histone Methylation and
Demethylation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
B. Histone Acetylation and Deacetylation . . . . 186
C. Histone Phosphorylation, Ubiquitination,
and Sumoylation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
D. Epigenetic Tools to Activate Silenced Gene
Clusters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
IV. The Role of Ubiquitination and
Deubiquitination in Fungal Development and
Secondary Metabolism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
A. The Ubiquitin Attachment Machinery
Influences Fungal Development and
Secondary Metabolism on Several Layers . . 189
B. Controlled Removal of Ubiquitin Family
Proteins from Substrates Is Important for
Fungal Growth and Development . . . . . . . . . . 191
V. Protein Degradation Pathways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
A. Protein Degradation by the 26S
Proteasome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
B. Degradation by Autophagy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
VI. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
I. Introduction
Fungi are ubiquitous lifeforms that can grow in
a wide range of diverse environments. Based on
current phylogenetic analyses, the fungal kingdom is divided into 8 phyla with 12 subphyla
and 46 classes (Spatafora et al. 2017). The two
monophyletic groups of Ascomycota and Basidiomycota form together the subkingdom of
Dikarya. Many fungi have a saprophytic lifestyle. They live on decaying organic matter as
principal decomposers of our ecosystem. Fungi
play important roles in our food industry to
make cheese, ferment soybeans, or brew beer
and in the pharma industry to produce drugs
(Gerke and Braus 2014). But their appearance
can also be harmful to us. Fungal spores are
dispersed through the air and can be inhaled
into our lungs where most of them are inactivated as long as the immune system is not
compromised (Shlezinger et al. 2017). Fungi
are responsible for many diseases in humans
and animals, ranging from allergies to lifethreatening intoxications and mycoses. The
infection of plants and contamination of harvest products by fungi lead to high economic
losses and are a threat for food supply and
safety (Meyer et al. 2016). In fungi, differentiation processes, including the formation of
infection structures, are closely linked to the
production of specific chemicals. These
interconnected processes and their regulations
are the main focus of this chapter.
1 Institut fu ¨r Mikrobiologie und Genetik, Abteilung Molekulare Mikrobiologie und Genetik, Go ¨ttinger Zentrum fu ¨r Molekulare Biowissenschaften (GZMB), Georg-August-Universita ¨t
Go ¨ttingen, Go ¨ttingen, Germany; e-mail: gbraus@gwdg.de
Genetics and Biotechnology, 3 rd Edition
The Mycota II
J.P. Benz, K. Schipper (Eds.)
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020