Comparative genomics between an industrially important species, Aspergillus sojae, and harmful one, Aspergillus parasiticus

Author:

Atsushi Sato 1, Inge Kjærbølling 2, Mikael R. Andersen 2, Toutai Mituyama 3, Yasuji Koyama 4, Yasuo Ohnishi 5

Author address:

1 Kikkoman Corporation Research & Development, Noda, Chiba, Japan;
2 Technical University of Denmark, Department of Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Søltoft Plads, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark;
3 National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Artificial Intelligence Research Center, Koto-ku Tokyo, Japan;
4 Noda Insititute for Scientific Research, Noda, Chiba, Japan;
5 The University of Tokyo, Department of Biotechnology, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, Bunkyo-ku Tokyo, Japan

Full conference title:

15th European Conference on Fungal Genetics 2020

Date: 21 June 2020

Abstract:

Aspergillus sojae has been used for soy sauce production for more than 300 years. Taxonomically, A. sojae and Aspergillus parasiticus are classified into Aspergillus section Flavi. This section includes not only industrially important but harmful species. A. sojae does not produce aflatoxin, a potent carcinogenic secondary metabolite, while it is almost morphologically-indistinguishable from A. parasiticus which infects and damages crops by producing aflatoxin. In 1986, it was reported that the homology between A. sojae and A. parasiticus was 91% in total DNA hybridization (1). However, the genomic differences between them have not been analyzed in detail (2). In this study, a comparative genomic analysis was performed between A. sojae NBRC 4239 and A. parasiticus CBS 117618. Using 13,752 annotated open reading frames (ORFs) of A. parasiticus CBS 117618 as queries, we searched the A. sojae NBRC 4239 genome for homologous genes by Spicio (3). As a result, 11,171 (81.2%) of the 13,752 ORFs were extremely highly conserved (Scipio score >0.95) in A. sojae. Scipio score is a value calculated by the following formula: [(the number of amino acid residues that used for actual comparison) – (the number of mismatched amino acid residues in the comparison)] / the number of total amino acid residues of ORF. Similarly, 1,643 (11.9%), 318 (2.3%), 128 (0.9%), and 109 (0.8%) ORFs were conserved in A. sojae with Scipio scores of 0.85-0.95, 0.75-0.85, 0.65- 0.75, and 0.50-0.65, respectively. Meanwhile, 94 secondary metabolite biosynthesis gene clusters were identified in A. parasiticus genome by anti-SMASH (4). In this presentation, we will discuss the differences between A. sojae and A. parasiticus from the viewpoint of functions of conserved and non-conserved ORFs.

1. Kurtzman et al. 1986. Mycologia, 78: 955-959.

2. Yuan et al. 1995. Appl Environ Microbiol., 61: 2384-2387.

3. Keller et al. 2008. BMC Bioinformatics, 9: 278.

4. Blin et al. 2019. Nucleic Acids Res. 47:W81.

Link to conference website:

Link Conference abstract: 

ECFG 15

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