Toolkit for Visualization of the Cellular Structure and Organelles in Aspergillus niger

Abstract

Aspergillus niger is a filamentous fungus that is extensively used in industrial fermentations for protein expression and the production of organic acids. Inherent biosynthetic capabilities, such as the capacity to secrete these biomolecules in high amounts, make A. niger an attractive production host. Although A. niger is renowned for this ability, the knowledge of the molecular components that underlie its production capacity, intercellular trafficking processes and secretion mechanisms is far from complete. Here, we introduce a standardized set of tools, consisting of an N-terminal GFP-actin fusion and codon optimized eforRed chromoprotein. Expression of the GFP-actin construct facilitates visualization of the actin filaments of the cytoskeleton, whereas expression of the chromoprotein construct results in a clearly distinguishable red phenotype. These experimentally validated constructs constitute the first set of standardized A. niger biomarkers, which can be used to study morphology, intercellular trafficking, and secretion phenomena.

BioBits™ Explorer: A modular synthetic biology education kit

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Promoting microbiology education through the iGEM synthetic biology competition

“…Indeed, there was a noticeable boost in iGEM team publications in when the journal published several papers as part of an iGEM special issue (http://pubs.acs.org/toc/asbcd6/3/12). Several of these publications were particularly relevant to research involving bacteria (Atanaskovic, Bencherif, Deyell et al 2014;Buren, Karrenbelt, Lingemann et al 2014;Daszczuk, Dessalegne, Drenth et al 2014;Hendrix, Read, Lalonde et al 2014;Libis, Bernheim, Basier et al 2014;Nielsen, Madsen, Seppala et al 2014;Wang, Ding, Chen et al 2014;Wu, Wang, Cao et al 2014).…”