Effect of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, benzo[a]pyrene, on the intracellular protein composition of Fusarium solani and Fusarium oxysporum

In the present study, we compared the two-dimensional polypeptide maps of proteins extracts from Fusarium solani and Fusarium oxysporum, two telluric fungi previously isolated from contaminated soil and shown to have good and poor benzo[a]pyrene degrading abilities, respectively. Their protein compositions were analyzed when grown in the presence and absence of benzo[a]pyrene. We provide evidence that benzo[a]pyrene induced specific protein synthesis in F. solani. The induced polypeptides were mainly observed in the acidic part of gels at 50,45 and 30 kDa. In contrast, no additional polypeptides were detected in F. oxysporum when grown in the presence of benzo[a]pyrene. The polypeptides sequence of 45 and 30 kDa polypeptides have high similarity (44% and 67%, respectively) with a porphobilinogen deaminase (EC 2.5.1.61), a key enzyme in the heme and cytochrome P450 biosynthesis pathway.