As the dominant fungus during the fermentation of Fuzhuan brick tea, Aspergillus cristatus is easily induced to undergo a sexual cycle under low-salt stress. However, the underlying regulatory mechanism of sexual reproduction is unclear. Here, we report a P53-like transcription factor AcndtA, which encodes an NDT80 DNA binding protein and regulates fungal reproduction, pigmentation and the stress response. Both insertion and deletion mutants of AcndtA exhibited a complete blockade of cleistothecium formation, and overexpressing AcndtA strains (OE: AcndtA) exhibited significantly reduced cleistothecium production, indicating that AcndtA plays a vital role in sexual development. Osmotic stress tests showed that overexpression of AcndtA had a negative impact on growth and conidia production. Additionally, AcndtA insertion, deletion and overexpression mutants exhibited reduced pigment formation. All the above developmental defects were reversed by the re-introduction of the AcndtA gene in ΔAcndtA. Moreover, the growth of AcndtA mutants in carbon-limited medium was better than that of the WT and OE: AcndtA strains, indicating that AcndtA is involved in carbon metabolism. Transcriptional profiling data showed that AcndtA regulated the expression of several genes related to development, osmotic stress and carbon metabolism.

作为茯砖茶发酵过程中的优势菌，棱曲霉在低盐胁迫下极易诱导发生性循环。然而，有性生殖的潜在调控机制尚不清楚。在这里，我们报告了一种 P53 样转录因子AcndtA，它编码 NDT80 DNA 结合蛋白并调节真菌繁殖、色素沉着和应激反应。AcndtA的插入和缺失突变体都表现出完全阻断闭锁菌的形成，并且过表达AcndtA菌株 (OE: AcndtA ) 表现出显着降低的闭锁菌产量，表明AcndtA在性发育中起着至关重要的作用。渗透压力测试表明，AcndtA的过表达对生长和分生孢子产生有负面影响。此外，AcndtA插入、缺失和过表达突变体表现出色素形成减少。通过在 ΔAcndtA 中重新引入AcndtA基因，所有上述发育缺陷都被逆转。此外，AcndtA突变体在限碳培养基中的生长优于WT和OE：AcndtA菌株，表明AcndtA参与了碳代谢。转录分析数据显示AcndtA调节与发育、渗透胁迫和碳代谢相关的几个基因的表达。