Functional Analyses of Two Acetyl Coenzyme A Synthetases in the Ascomycete Gibberella zeae
ABSTRACTAcetyl coenzyme A (acetyl-CoA) is a crucial metabolite for energy metabolism and biosynthetic pathways and is produced in various cellular compartments with spatial and temporal precision. Our previous study on ATP citrate lyase (ACL) inGibberella zeaerevealed that ACL-dependent acetyl-CoA production is important for histone acetylation, especially in sexual development, but is not involved in lipid synthesis. In this study, we deleted additional acetyl-CoA synthetic genes, the acetyl-CoA synthetases (ACSgenesACS1andACS2), to identify alternative acetyl-CoA production mechanisms for ACL. TheACS1deletion resulted in a defect in sexual development that was mainly due to a reduction in 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-3-linoleoyl-rac-glycerol production, which is required for perithecium development and maturation. Another ACS coding gene,ACS2, has accessorial functions forACS1and has compensatory functions forACLas a nuclear acetyl-CoA producer. This study showed that acetate is readily generated during the entire life cycle ofG. zeaeand has a pivotal role in fungal metabolism. Because ACSs are components of the pyruvate-acetaldehyde-acetate pathway, this fermentation process might have crucial roles in various physiological processes for filamentous fungi.