| Title: | Mutational Analysis of Aspergillus fumigatus Volatile Oxylipins in a Drosophila Eclosion Assay |
| Author(s): | Almaliki HS; Niu M; Keller NP; Yin G; Bennett JW; |
| Address: | "Technical Institute of Samawa, Al-Furat Al-Awsat Technical University, Samawa 66001, Iraq. Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA. Peking University Institute of Advanced Agricultural Sciences, Shandong Laboratory of Advanced Agricultural Sciences in Weifang, Weifang 261325, China. Department of Plant Biology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 2309-608X (Electronic) 2309-608X (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Aspergillus fumigatus is a ubiquitous opportunistic pathogen. We have previously reported that volatile organic compounds (VOCs) produced by A. fumigatus cause delays in metamorphosis, morphological abnormalities, and death in a Drosophila melanogaster eclosion model. Here, we developed A. fumigatus deletion mutants with blocked oxylipin biosynthesis pathways (?OsppoABC) and then exposed the third instar larvae of D. melanogaster to a shared atmosphere with either A. fumigatus wild-type or oxylipin mutant cultures for 15 days. Fly larvae exposed to VOCs from wild-type A. fumigatus strains exhibited delays in metamorphosis and toxicity, while larvae exposed to VOCs from the ?OsppoABC mutant displayed fewer morphogenic delays and higher eclosion rates than the controls. In general, when fungi were pre-grown at 37 degrees C, the effects of the VOCs they produced were more pronounced than when they were pre-grown at 25 degrees C. GC-MS analysis revealed that the wild-type A. fumigatus Af293 produced more abundant VOCs at higher concentrations than the oxylipin-deficient strain Af293?OsppoABC did. The major VOCs detected from wild-type Af293 and its triple mutant included isopentyl alcohol, isobutyl alcohol, 2-methylbutanal, acetoin, and 1-octen-3-ol. Unexpectedly, compared to wild-type flies, the eclosion tests yielded far fewer differences in metamorphosis or viability when flies with immune-deficient genotypes were exposed to VOCs from either wild-type or ?OsppoABC oxylipin mutants. In particular, the toxigenic effects of Aspergillus VOCs were not observed in mutant flies deficient in the Toll (spz(6)) pathway. These data indicate that the innate immune system of Drosophila mediates the toxicity of fungal volatiles, especially via the Toll pathway" |
| Keywords: | Aspergillus fumigatus Drosophila innate immunity eclosion assay oxylipins volatile organic compounds (VOCs); |
| Notes: | "PubMed-not-MEDLINEAlmaliki, Hadeel S Niu, Mengyao Keller, Nancy P Yin, Guohua Bennett, Joan W eng Switzerland 2023/04/28 J Fungi (Basel). 2023 Mar 24; 9(4):402. doi: 10.3390/jof9040402" |
