2025/01/01 by Tania Chroumpi, Astrid Müller, Mao Peng +15 · 1 voice
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Engineering · Nursing · #Biofuel production and bioconversion #Microbial Metabolic Engineering and Bioproduction #Microbial Metabolites in Food Biotechnology
paper · doi:10.1016/j.crmicr.2025.100454
openalex publication_date 2025/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
To evaluate the impact of individual sugar catabolic pathways on the physiology of A. niger when using plant biomass as a carbon source, key pathways converting plant biomass derived monomers were blocked. The resulting deletion mutants were analyzed using wheat bran and sugar beet pulp as substrates. On both substrates, the strongest affected single-pathway mutants were the pentose catabolic pathway (PCP) (Δ xkiA ) and glycolysis (Δ hxkA Δ glkA ) deficient mutants. On wheat bran, which is rich in pentose sugars, blocking the PCP by deletion of xkiA strongly impacted both growth and gene expression. However, the effect was even stronger in Δ hxkA Δ glkA and similar to a strain in which all pathways were blocked, highlighting the crucial role of glycolysis and/or carbon catabolite repression in A. niger physiology. These results demonstrate the complexity of A. niger metabolism during growth on plant biomass and provide insights into aspects to consider during metabolic engineering to obtain fungal cell factories.