Engineering the secretome of Aspergillus niger for cellooligosaccharides production from plant biomass.

Background: Fermentation of sugars derived from plant biomass feedstock is crucial for sustainability. Hence, utilizing customized enzymatic cocktails to obtain oligosaccharides instead of monomers is an alternative fermentation strategy to produce prebiotics, cosmetics, and biofuels. This study developed an engineered strain of Aspergillus niger producing a tailored cellulolytic cocktail capable of partially degrading sugarcane straw to yield cellooligosaccharides.

Deacetylation by sirtuins is important for pathogenesis and virulence.

Protein acetylation is a crucial post-translational modification that controls gene expression and a variety of biological processes. Sirtuins, a prominent class of NAD -dependent lysine deacetylases, serve as key regulators of protein acetylation and gene expression in eukaryotes. In this study, six single knockout strains of fungal pathogen were constructed, in addition to a strain lacking all predicted sirtuins (SIRTKO).

Lysine acetylation as drug target in fungi: an underexplored potential in Aspergillus spp.

In recent years, the intensification of the use of immunosuppressive therapies has increased the incidence of invasive infections caused by opportunistic fungi. Considering that, the spread of azole resistance and amphotericin B (AmB) inefficiency against some clinical and environmental isolates has been described. Thus, to avoid a global problem when controlling fungal infections and critical failures in medicine, and food security, new approaches for drug target identification and for the development of new treatments that are more effective against pathogenic fungi are desired.