Glucose-mediated repression of autolysis and conidiogenesis in Emericella nidulans

Glucose-mediated repression of autolysis and sporulation was studied in submerged Emericella nidulans (anam. Aspergillus nidulans) cultures. Null mutation of the creA gene, which encodes the major carbon catabolite repressor CreA in E. nidulans, resulted in a hyperautolytic phenotype characterized by increased extracellular hydrolase production and dry cell mass declination. Interestingly, glucose, as well as the glucose antimetabolite 2-deoxy-d-glucose, repressed autolysis and sporulation in both the control and the creA null mutant strains suggesting that these processes were also subjected to CreA-independent carbon regulation. For example, the glucose-mediated, but CreA-independent, repression of the sporulation transcription factor BrlA was likely to contribute to the negative regulation of conidiogenesis by glucose. Although CreA played a prominent role in the regulation of autolysis via the repression of genes encoding important autolytic hydrolases like ChiB chitinase and PrtA protease the age-related production of the chitinase activity was also negatively affected by the down-regulation of brlA expression. However, neither CreA-dependent nor CreA-independent elements of carbon regulation affected the initiation and regulation of cell death in E. nidulans under carbon starvation.