NURoFE · Nuclear Regulators of Fungal Enzymes
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2021-05-26 → 2023-05-25
- EU contribution
- €196,591
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Nuclear Regulators of Fungal Enzymes
1. Explanation of the work carried out by the beneficiaries and overview of the proposal This proposal aims to uncover new nuclear regulators of fungal enzymes regulating important enzymes for renewable biofuels and secondary metabolite production under Carbon Catabolite Repression (CCR) that respond to glucose-mediated signaling using Aspergillus nidulans as a model. The degradation of biomass and usage for renewable biofuels have a bottleneck in the limited amount of enzymes produced and the high cost, this proposal aims to find out new nuclear regulators allowing to improve the secretion of hydrolytic enzymes such as xylanases and cellulases production turning feasible the conversion of biomass cellulose-based into green biofuel, reducing the usage of biomass waste for the production of electricity generated by combustion, impairing the CO2 emissions and supporting the reduction of global warming. Furthermore, glucose repression also plays a role in secondary metabolite production that holds importance in pharmaceutical, medical, and agricultural applications such as food poisoning by the toxin aflatoxin, the targets identified can be used for agricultural applications that aim the reduction of food waste, another major worldwide concern once the food could become limited in the future. This report shows the data collected from the initial experiments executed that correspond to the period from May 26th to October 1st, 2021. 1.2 Objectives The overall aim of this project is to identify uncharacterized proteins regulating CCR and how these proteins are controlling xylanase, cellulase, and secondary metabolite production. To achieve this, the proposal was break-down into work packages (Fig. 1) described below, showing how the project should be developed during the execution of the Marie-Curie action. 1.2.1 Work Package 1 The wild-type Aspergillus strain will be grown in minimal media supplemented with 1% xylan (w/v) as a carbon source for 24 h and then 2% (w/v) glucose will be added to this media for 1 h to activate CCR. Nuclear fractions from both xylan and glucose plus xylan grown media will be prepared as described previously1,2. The aim is to identify proteins with a role in CCR that translocate to the nucleus in the presence of glucose, compared with xylan nuclear profile using mass spectrometry.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
The dependence of mankind on petroleum- and oil-based fuels as the main energy source is widely recognised as being accompanied by several problems that impact the global economy and environmental health. In recent years, the conversion of plant biomass to biofuels, in a process called 1st- (1G) and 2nd-generation (2G) biofuel-production, has gained significant interest as an environmentally friendly and naturally abundant alternative, renewable energy source. The EU (European Union) legislation implements that by 2020, 20% of energy must be derived from renewable sources, showing the importance that renewable energy source production will play in the future. Saprobic microorganisms, such as filamentous fungi of the genus Aspergillus, are of particular interest for this process as they secrete a vast array of plant biomass hydrolyzing enzymes. A major drawback in the production of renewable biofuels is built-up of glucose during enzymatic hydrolysis of plant biomass, resulting in the transcriptional repression of fungal enzyme-encoding genes and subsequent secretion. The here described fellowship is proposing to uncover novel proteins involved in the regulation of hydrolytic enzymes and secondary metabolites production in the filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans that can be explored for biotechnological processes. To implement this project, the candidate will be hosted at the National University of Ireland in Maynooth in the laboratory of Fungal Genetics and Secondary Metabolism, under the supervision of Dr. Ozgur Bayram.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND MAYNOOTH · MaynoothCoordinatorIreland
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union