Characterization of an Inducible Citrate Uptake System in Penicillium Simplicissimum
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FEMS Microbiology Letters 213 (2002) 21^26 www.fems-microbiology.org Characterization of an inducible citrate uptake system in Penicillium simplicissimum Martin Síimkovic› a, Michal Kalin›a¤k a, Wolfgang Burgstaller b, L’udov|¤t Varec›ka a;Ã a Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Slovak University of Technology, Radlinske¤ho 9, 81102 Bratislava, Slovak Republic Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/femsle/article/213/1/21/516581 by guest on 23 September 2021 b Institute of Microbiology, Leopold-Franzens-University Innsbruck, Technikerstrasse 25, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria Received 20 March 2002; received in revised form 4 May 2002; accepted 10 May 2002 First published online 3 June 2002 Abstract When citrate was used as a sole source of carbon, citrate uptake by Penicillium simplicissimum increased 267-fold (if glucose-grown mycelium was adapted to citrate) or 1400-fold (if the fungus was grown on citrate) compared to glucose-grown mycelium. Inhibition of macromolecular synthesis prevented this stimulation of citrate uptake. Citrate uptake by glucose-grown mycelium was low (0.0015 nmol 31 31 31 min (mg DW) ) and most probably due to diffusion of undissociated citric acid. Citrate-adapted mycelium had a KM of 65 Wmol l 31 31 31 31 31 and a Vmax of 0.34 nmol min (mg DW) . In citrate-grown mycelium KM was 318 Wmol l and Vmax was 8.5 nmol min (mg DW) . Citrate uptake was inhibited by sodium azide and uncouplers (TCS, 3,3P,4P,5-tetrachlorosalicylanilide; FCCP, carbonyl cyanide p-trifluoromethoxyphenyl-hydrazone). Because of this we postulate that the induced citrate uptake must be an active transport process. The pH optimum of citrate uptake was between pH 6 and 7. EDTA and Mg2þ,Mn2þ,Cu2þ,Zn2þ,Fe2þ,Ca2þ only weakly influenced the induced citrate uptake. The properties of citrate uptake by Aspergillus niger and P. simplicissimum are compared. ß 2002 Federation of European Microbiological Societies. Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Penicillium simplicissimum; Citrate; Uptake; E¥ux; Induction 1. Introduction Citrate excretion by Penicillium simplicissimum can be used for the solubilization of metals in biohydrometallur- Citrate is a compound which is frequently present in gical processes [8]. P. simplicissimum excretes citrate if fungal growth media (either added or excreted by the fun- growth is limited and glucose is in excess [9]. Excretion gus), and which is also available for fungi in soil [1,2]. of citrate by P. simplicissimum is mediated by a transport Although there have been few investigations, it is reason- protein [10]. Uptake of citrate was also observed with able to assume that many fungi can use citrate as a sole P. simplicissimum, because the fungus could use citrate source of carbon. Besides being a carbon source, citrate as a sole carbon source [11]. This raises the question forms complexes with a variety of metals [3,4]. These com- whether the excretion of citrate is mediated by an inverse plexes in£uence the toxicity of metals and can help to take citrate uptake system or if there are two di¡erent transport up a metal ion, for instance iron [5] and manganese [6,7]. proteins, as is the case, for instance, with glutamate uptake In spite of these multiple functions of citrate, there is a and excretion by Corynebacterium glutamicum [12]. To lack of studies of fungal citrate uptake systems. With re- answer this question one necessary step is to characterize spect to mitosporic fungi only the citrate uptake system of the uptake system for citrate in P. simplicissimum. The Aspergillus niger ATCC 11414 has been investigated in results presented extend those published by Gallmetzer et detail [7]. al. [10] and show that adaptation to and/or growth of the fungus with citrate leads to appearance of the transport process with di¡erent properties than those of the citrate- naive fungus. Further aims of this study were to character- ize the citrate uptake system in P. simplicissimum, to com- * Corresponding author. Tel.: +421 (2) 5932 5514; pare it with citrate uptake by A. niger, and to discuss Fax: +421 (2) 5292 3198. whether P. simplicissimum excretes citrate by an inverse E-mail address: [email protected] (L. Varec›ka). citrate uptake system. 0378-1097 / 02 / $22.00 ß 2002 Federation of European Microbiological Societies. Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S0378-1097(02)00751-6 FEMSLE 10536 12-7-02 22 M. Síimkovic› et al. / FEMS Microbiology Letters 213 (2002) 21^26 2. Materials and methods otherwise; speci¢c radioactivity about 1000 cpm nmol31). The suspension was immediately vortexed and 1-ml ali- 2.1. Culture conditions quots were withdrawn, ¢ltered through a membrane ¢lter (Whatman GF/A) and washed with 2U3 ml of 1 mol l31 The medium for submerged cultivation of P. simplicis- citric acid (pH 7.4). When the kinetics was measured, ali- 31 simum consisted of (g l ): 80 glucose, 0.84 (NH4)2SO4, quots were withdrawn at the times indicated in the ¢gures, 0.68 NH4Cl, 0.8 KH2PO4, 0.4 MgSO4W7H2O. These com- otherwise after 20 min. The membrane ¢lters were trans- ponents were dissolved into 500 ml of distilled water and ferred to scintillation vials and the radioactivity was mea- the pH was titrated with 1 mol l31 NaOH to 7.4. Then, 20 sured by liquid scintillation counting. All experiments were ml of a solution of trace elements was added (g l31): 0.5 carried out in triplicate. The results are expressed as aver- FeSO4W7H2O, 0.33 MnSO4W5H2O, 0.42 ZnSO4W7H2O, 0.05 age of triplicates þ S.D. of a representative of three experi- CuSO4W5H2O, 0.3 CaCl2W2H2O. Two hundred milliliters of ments. the liquid medium were inoculated with a conidial suspen- Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/femsle/article/213/1/21/516581 by guest on 23 September 2021 sion to a ¢nal density of 8U106 conidia ml31. Submerged 2.4. Uptake of unlabeled citric acid cultivation was carried out for 24 h at 30‡C in the dark on a rotary shaker (250 rpm). When citrate excretion had to Ten milliliters of a culture grown with citrate as carbon be induced, the cultivation was carried out in the same source were ¢ltered through a nylon net (20 Wm), washed medium, except that 1 mol l31 Tris bu¡er (pH 8) was with 2U10 ml of 50 mmol l31 MES bu¡er (pH 6.0) and included and the cultivation was prolonged for 3 days. suspended into 100 ml of the same bu¡er. This suspension For growth on citrate, citric acid (100 mmol l31) was was incubated for 15 min and the procedure was repeated. used instead of glucose and the medium was adjusted The ¢nal suspension was supplemented with citric acid with solid NaOH to pH 5.0. Other conditions were iden- (¢nal concentration 0.1, 0.5 or 1 mmol l31, plus the sub- tical to those described above. stance to be tested for its in£uence on the citrate trans- port). Immediately (time 0), and at time intervals indicated 2.2. Adaptation of glucose-grown mycelium to citrate as a in the ¢gures, two aliquots (each 10 ml) were taken and sole carbon source ¢ltered. The ¢ltrate was immediately frozen and later used for the analysis of citrate. Citrate was determined by A 24-h culture was centrifuged for 10 min at 2500Ug HPLC as described by Burgstaller et al. [13]. Intracellular under sterile conditions and the supernatant was removed citrate was extracted as described by Gallmetzer et al. [10]. by means of a micropipette. The mycelium was suspended into 150^200 ml of fresh medium which contained no glu- 2.5. Chemicals cose, but 50 or 250 mmol l31 citric acid titrated to pH 5.0 with Tris base. Centrifugation and re-suspension were re- The chemicals used were from the following sources: peated three times. To the ¢nal suspension a sterile ampi- [14C]citric acid from Radiochemical Centre, Amersham, cillin solution was added (¢nal concentration 100 Wgml31) UK; dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) was from Merck, Darm- and the suspension was incubated for another 48 h. Adap- stadt, Germany; Good bu¡ers from Serva, Heidelberg, tation was terminated by ¢ltration of the mycelium Germany (MES, HEPES) and from Fluka, Buchs, Swit- through a nylon net. The mycelium was washed three zerland (PIPES, MOPS); carbonyl cyanide p-tri£uorome- times with 150 ml of the medium containing citric acid thoxy-phenylhydrazone (FCCP) from Sigma, St. Louis, and re-suspended in 100 ml of the medium without glucose MO, USA; 3,3P,4P,5-tetrachlorosalicylanilide (TCS) from and citric acid, at a density of 4^10 mg dry weight per ml. Eastman-Kodak, Rochester, MN, USA; tris-(hydroxyme- Uptake experiments were started after 15 min of incuba- thylamino) methane was purchased from Medika, Brati- tion at ambient temperature. The following mixture of slava, Slovakia. All other reagents were purchased from inhibitors was used to test whether the synthesis of macro- Lachema, Brno, Czech Republic. molecules was necessary for the induction of citrate up- take: chloramphenicol and erythromycin (inhibitors of mitochondrial protein synthesis; each 30 Wgml31), cyclo- 3. Results heximide (inhibitor of cytoplasmic protein synthesis; 60 Wg ml31), rifamycin and rifampicin (inhibitors of RNA syn- Hyphae grown on glucose as a sole carbon source were thesis; 30 and 15 Wgml31, respectively) and ampicillin essentially devoid of the ability to transport citrate: at an (100 Wgml31). extracellular citrate concentration of 0.1 mmol l31 the up- take rate was 0.0015 nmol min31 (mg DW)31 (Fig. 1A). 2.3. Uptake of [14C]citric acid This uptake had a pH optimum between pH 3 and 4 (Fig.