The filamentous fungus Aspergillus niger exhibits great diversity in its phenotype. It is found globally, both as marine and terrestrial strains, produces both organic acids and hydrolytic enzymes in high amounts, and some isolates exhibit pathogenicity. Although the genome of an industrial enzyme-producing A. niger strain (CBS 513.88) has already been sequenced, the versatility and diversity of this species compel additional exploration. We therefore undertook wholegenome sequencing of the acidogenic A. niger wild-type strain (ATCC 1015) and produced a genome sequence of very high quality. Only 15 gaps are present in the sequence, and half the telomeric regions have been elucidated. Moreover, sequence information from ATCC 1015 was used to improve the genome sequence of CBS 513.88. Chromosome-level comparisons uncovered several genome rearrangements, deletions, a clear case of strain-specific horizontal gene transfer, and identification of 0.8 Mb of novel sequence. Single nucleotide polymorphisms per kilobase (SNPs/kb) between the two strains were found to be exceptionally high (average: 7.8, maximum: 160 SNPs/kb). High variation within the species was confirmed with exo-metabolite profiling and phylogenetics. Detailed lists of alleles were generated, and genotypic differences were observed to accumulate in metabolic pathways essential to acid production and protein synthesis. A transcriptome analysis supported up-regulation of genes associated with biosynthesis of amino acids that are abundant in glucoamylase A, tRNA-synthases, and protein transporters in the protein producing CBS 513.88 strain. Our results and data sets from this integrative systems biology analysis resulted in a snapshot of fungal evolution and will support further optimization of cell factories based on filamentous fungi.

The full-genome sequencing of the filamentous fungi Aspergillus nidulans, Aspergillus niger, and Aspergillus oryzae has opened possibilities for studying the cellular physiology of these fungi on a systemic level. As a tool to explore this, we are making available an Affymetrix GeneChip developed for transcriptome analysis of any of the three above-mentioned aspergilli. Transcriptome analysis of triplicate batch cultivations of all three aspergilli on glucose and xylose media was used to validate the performance of the microarray. Gene comparisons of all three species and crossanalysis with the expression data identified 23 genes to be a conserved response across Aspergillus sp., including the xylose transcriptional activator XlnR. A promoter analysis of the upregulated genes in all three species indicates the conserved XlnRbinding site to be 5-GGNTAAA-3. The composition of the conserved gene-set suggests that xylose acts as a molecule, indicating the presence of complex carbohydrates such as hemicellulose, and triggers an array of degrading enzymes. With this case example, we present a validated tool for transcriptome analysis of three Aspergillus species and a methodology for conducting cross-species evolutionary studies within a genus using comparative transcriptomics.Aspergillus nidulans ͉ Aspergillus niger ͉ Aspergillus oryzae ͉ XlnR

Glycerol is catabolized by a wide range of microorganisms including Aspergillus species. To identify the transcriptional regulation of glycerol metabolism in Aspergillus, we analyzed data from triplicate batch fermentations of three different Aspergilli (Aspergillus nidulans, Aspergillus oryzae and Aspergillus niger) with glucose and glycerol as carbon sources. Protein comparisons and cross-analysis with gene expression data of all three species resulted in the identification of 88 genes having a conserved response across the three Aspergilli. A promoter analysis of the up-regulated genes led to the identification of a conserved binding site for a putative regulator to be 5'-TGCGGGGA-3', a binding site that is similar to the binding site for Adr1 in yeast and humans. We show that this Adr1 consensus binding sequence was over-represented on promoter regions of several genes in A. nidulans, A. oryzae and A. niger. Our transcriptome analysis indicated that genes involved in ethanol, glycerol, fatty acid, amino acids and formate utilization are putatively regulated by Adr1 in Aspergilli as in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and this transcription factor therefore is likely to be cross-species conserved among Saccharomyces and distant Ascomycetes. Transcriptome data were further used to evaluate the high osmolarity glycerol pathway. All the components of this pathway present in yeast have orthologues in the three Aspergilli studied and its gene expression response suggested that this pathway functions as in S. cerevisiae. Our study clearly demonstrates that cross-species evolutionary comparisons among filamentous fungi, using comparative genomics and transcriptomics, are a powerful tool for uncovering regulatory systems.

Maltose utilization and regulation in aspergilli is of great importance for cellular physiology and industrial fermentation processes. In Aspergillus oryzae, maltose utilization requires a functional MAL locus, composed of three genes: MALR encoding a regulatory protein, MALT encoding maltose permease and MALS encoding maltase. Through a comparative genome and transcriptome analysis we show that the MAL regulon system is active in A. oryzae while it is not present in Aspergillus niger. In order to utilize maltose, A. niger requires a different regulatory system that involves the AmyR regulator for glucoamylase (glaA) induction. Analysis of reporter metabolites and subnetworks illustrates the major route of maltose transport and metabolism in A. oryzae. This demonstrates that overall metabolic responses of A. oryzae occur in terms of genes, enzymes and metabolites when the carbon source is altered. Although the knowledge of maltose transport and metabolism is far from being complete in Aspergillus spp., our study not only helps to understand the sugar preference in industrial fermentation processes, but also indicates how maltose affects gene expression and overall metabolism.

The field of industrial biotechnology is expanding rapidly as the chemical industry is looking towards more sustainable production of chemicals that can be used as fuels or building blocks for production of solvents and materials. In connection with the development of sustainable bioprocesses, it is a major challenge to design and develop efficient cell factories that can ensure cost efficient conversion of the raw material into the chemical of interest. This is achieved through metabolic engineering, where the metabolism of the cell factory is engineered such that there is an efficient conversion of sugars, the typical raw materials in the fermentation industry, into the desired product. However, engineering of cellular metabolism is often challenging due to the complex regulation that has evolved in connection with adaptation of the different microorganisms to their ecological niches. In order to map these regulatory structures and further de-regulate them, as well as identify ingenious metabolic engineering strategies that full-fill mass balance constraints, tools from systems biology can be applied. This involves both high-throughput analysis tools like transcriptome, proteome and metabolome analysis, as well as the use of mathematical modeling to simulate the phenotypes resulting from the different metabolic engineering strategies. It is in fact expected that systems biology may substantially improve the process of cell factory development, and we therefore propose the term Industrial Systems Biology for how systems biology will enhance the development of industrial biotechnology for sustainable chemical production.