Project name: Genome-wide expression analyses in Aspergillus fumigatus growing under alkaline zinc-limiting conditions

Description: In this study it was investigated the role of ZafA on gene expression at a genome wide scale by comparing the transcriptional profile of a wild-type strain of A. fumigatus with that of a dzafA null strain grown in zinc-limiting media. The analysis of the results indicated that among genes up-regulated under zinc-limiting conditions were those most directly involved in zinc homeostasis such as zafA, that encoded for the ZafA transcriptional regulator of zinc homeostasis, zrfA, zrfB and zrfC that encoded zinc transporters presumably located at the plasma membrane and zrfF that encodes a zinc transporter located presumably at the vacuole membrane. Besides, a gene encoding a putative zinc-metallochaperone that might play a role in the correct folding of certain metalloproteins was also induced under zinc-limiting conditions. In addition, many other genes whose encoding products are either predicted or shown to be related to different metabolic or regulatory processes were also up-regulated under zinc-limiting conditions, including genes related to amino acid metabolism, cell wall biosynthesis, cytoskeletal assembly and reorganization, energy homeostasis, oxidative stress response, ER and vacuolar functions, iron metabolism, vesicular trafficking, lipid and ergosterol metabolism, protein degradation and modification, sulfur metabolism, ribosomal biogenesis and biosynthesis of secondary metabolites.Overall design: Total RNA will be purified (QIAGEN RNeasy mini Kit cat. 74904) from a wild-type (wt) and a zafA null strain (dzafA) of Aspergillus fumigatus was cultured in the SDN zinc-limiting (-Zn) and zinc replete (+Zn) media at 37ºC for 20 hours with shaking at 200 rpm. The following hibridizations will be performed: (1) wt-Zn versus wt+Zn; (2) dzafA-Zn versus dzafA+Zn and, (3) wt-Zn versus dzafA-Zn

Data type: Transcriptome or Gene expression

Sample scope: Multiisolate

Relevance: Environmental

Last updated: 2018-01-18