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Eukaryotic Cell doi:10.1128/EC.00130-08
Copyright (c) 2008, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.

Cross-species hybridization with Fusarium verticillioides microarrays reveals new insights in Fusarium fujikuroi nitrogen regulation and the role of AreA and NMR

Institut für Botanik der Westfälischen Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Schloßgarten 3, D-48149 Münster, Germany; Mycotoxin Research Group, USDA/ARS, 1815 N University St, Peoria, IL 61604, USA

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: tudzynsb{at}uni-muenster.de.

	Abstract

In filamentous fungi, the GATA-type transcription factor AreA plays a major role in transcriptional activation of genes needed to utilize poor nitrogen sources. In Fusarium fujikuroi, AreA also controls genes involved in biosynthesis of gibberellins, a family of diterpenoid plant hormones. To identify more genes responding to nitrogen limitation or sufficiency in an AreA-dependent or -independent manner, we examined changes in gene expression of F. fujikuroi wild-type and areA strains using a F. verticillioides microarray representing 9,300 genes. Analysis of the array data revealed sets of genes significantly down- and up-regulated in the areA mutant under both N-starvation and N-sufficient conditions. Among the down-regulated genes are those involved in nitrogen metabolism, e.g. those encoding the glutamine synthetase and nitrogen permeases, but also genes involved in secondary metabolism. Beside AreA-dependent genes, we found an even larger set of genes responding to N-starvation and N-sufficient conditions in an AreA-independent manner. To study the impact of NMR on AreA activity, we examined the expression of several AreA target genes in the wild-type and in areA and nmr deletion and overexpression mutants. We show that NMR interacts with AreA as expected, but affects gene expression only in early growth stages. This is the first report on genome-wide expression studies examining the influence of AreA on nitrogen responsive gene expression in a genome wide manner in filamentous fungi.