Biotechnology Bulletin ›› 2021, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (12): 180-190.doi: 10.13560/j.cnki.biotech.bull.1985.2021-0274

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Regulations of Small-molecules Metabolites on Hexokinase and Pyruvate Kinase in Aspergillus niger

MENG Xiao-jian1,2,3(), YU Jian-dong2,3, ZHENG Xiao-mei2,3,4(), ZHENG Ping2,3,4, LI Zhi-min1(), SUN Ji-bin2,3,4, YE Qin1   

  1. 1. State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering,East China University of Science and Technology,Shanghai 200237
    2. Key Laboratory of Systems Microbial Biotechnology,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Tianjin 300308
    3. Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology Chinese Academy of Sciences,Tianjin 300308
    4. National Technology Innovation Center of Synthetic Biology,Tianjin 300308
  • Received:2021-03-10 Online:2021-12-26 Published:2022-01-19
  • Contact: ZHENG Xiao-mei,LI Zhi-min E-mail:mengxj@tib.cas.cn;zheng_xm@tib.cas.cn;lizm@ecust.edu.cn

Abstract:

Aspergillus niger is an industrial strain for citric acid production. Three irreversible reactions in the glycolysis pathway are important regulation nodes for citric acid accumulation. However,there are only few studies regarding the metabolic regulation of hexokinase and pyruvate kinase. This study aims to unveil the regulation of metabolic intermediates on hexokinase and pyruvate kinase in A. niger. First,the genes encoding hexokinase and pyruvate kinase were overexpressed in A. niger and the proteins were purified by GST affinity chromatography. The specific enzyme activities of the recombined hexokinase and pyruvate kinase were(4.86±0.14)U/mg and(1.83±0.02)U/mg,respectively. Then,the effects of metabolites on the activities of hexokinase and pyruvate kinase were measured. Fructose-6-phosphate,phosphoenolpyruvate,ADP and ATP were the inhibitors of hexokinase. As to pyruvate kinase,fructose-1,6-diphosphate,malic acid and fumaric acid presented inhibitory effects,while its substrate ADP showed feed-forward activation. Finally,the molecular docking of key metabolites with enzymes was simulated. It discovered that substrate binding site Asn210 of hexokinase and vital sites of its adjacent amino acids and key metabolites;while the Thr416,Thr417 and Trp470 of the pyruvate kinase in the allosteric domain were the vital binding sites for key metabolites. In this study,we systematically identified the metabolic regulation of metabolites on the hexokinase and pyruvate kinase and predicted their allosteric regulatory sites,which deepens the understanding of the regulatory mechanism of glycolysis in A. niger.

Key words: Aspergillus niger, citric acid, hexokinase, pyruvate kinase, metabolic regulation