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Annotation of AMP-activated protein kinase genes and its comparative transcriptional analysis between high and low lipid producing strains of Mucor circinelloides

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Abstract

Background

AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is an important regulator for lipid accumulation, potentially known to have an inhibitory role in lipid synthesis. It inactivates acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC), an important regulatory enzyme required for lipid synthesis. However, in Mucor circinelloides, AMPK and its association with lipid accumulation has not been studied yet.

Objectives

To identify AMPK genes in M. circinelloides and to compare their expression levels in high and low lipid-producing strains of M. circinelloides to predict the possible roles of AMPK in lipid metabolism and to select candidate genes for further studies to enhance lipid accumulation.

Results

Two genes for α-subunit, one for β-subunit and six for γ-subunit were identified and annotated. Bioinformatic analysis confirmed the presence of typical conserved domains in these genes. Furthermore, transcriptional profiling displayed marked differences in expression kinetics of subunits among the selected strains. The expression of AMPK genes decreased rapidly in WJ11, high lipid producer strain during the lipid accumulation phase while contrasting profile of expression was observed in CBS 277.49, low lipid producer strain.

Conclusion

The present study has shown the association of AMPK genes with lipid metabolism at the transcriptional level. The involvement of Snf-α1, Snf-α2, Snf-β, Snf-γ1, Snf-γ4, Snf-γ5 subunits were shown to be more pronounced and could potentially be further explored in future studies.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Md. Ahsanul Kabir Khan, Samee ullah, Muhammad Hafiy Bin Mohd Halim, Yang Wu for their assistance during fermentation and RNA extraction and to Hafiz Muhammad Jafar Hussain for careful reading of the manuscript and discussions.

Supporting information

Supplementary Materials—The sequences of primers used in this study were given in table 1 and putative localization, theoretical molecular weight, ρI for AMPK subunits were shown in table 2

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 31972851 and 31670064), TaiShan Industrial Experts Programme (tscy 20160101) and Shandong provincial key technology R&D plan (2018GNC110039).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Colin Ratledge Center for Microbial Lipids, School of Agricultural Engineering and Food Science, Shandong University of Technology, Zibo, 255000, Shandong, China

    Shaista Nosheen, Junhuan Yang, Tahira Naz, Yusuf Nazir, Abu Bakr Ahmad Fazili, Shaoqi Li, Kiren Mustafa & Yuanda Song

  2. School of Food Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, China

    Muhammad Ijaz Ahmad

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  1. Shaista Nosheen
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  2. Junhuan Yang
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  3. Tahira Naz
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  4. Yusuf Nazir
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  5. Muhammad Ijaz Ahmad
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  7. Shaoqi Li
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  9. Yuanda Song
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Correspondence to Yuanda Song.

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Nosheen, S., Yang, J., Naz, T. et al. Annotation of AMP-activated protein kinase genes and its comparative transcriptional analysis between high and low lipid producing strains of Mucor circinelloides. Biotechnol Lett 43, 193–202 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-020-02990-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-020-02990-2

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