Development of a whole-cell SELEX process to select species-specific aptamers against Aspergillus niger.

Background: Spores produced by the filamentous fungus Aspergillus niger are abundant in a variety of environments. The proliferation of this fungus in indoor environments has been associated to health risks and its conidia can cause allergic reaction and severe invasive disease in animals and humans. Therefore, the detection and monitoring of Aspergillus conidia is of utmost importance to prevent serious fungal infections and contaminations.

Manganese(II) ions suppress the transcription of the citrate exporter encoding gene in .

is an important filamentous fungus used for the industrial production of citric acid. One of the most important factors that affect citric acid production is the concentration of manganese(II) ions present in the culture broth. Under manganese(II)-limiting conditions, the fungus develops a pellet-like morphology that is crucial for high citric acid accumulation.

The importance of complete and high-quality genome sequences in research.

The possibility to sequence the entire genome of an organism revolutionized the fields of biology and biotechnology. The first genome sequence of the important filamentous fungus was obtained in 2007, 11 years after the release of the first eukaryotic genome sequence. From that moment, genomics of has seen major progresses, facilitated by the advances in the sequencing technologies and in the methodologies for gene function prediction.

Genome sequencing of the neotype strain CBS 554.65 reveals the MAT1-2 locus of Aspergillus niger.

Background: Aspergillus niger is a ubiquitous filamentous fungus widely employed as a cell factory thanks to its abilities to produce a wide range of organic acids and enzymes. Its genome was one of the first Aspergillus genomes to be sequenced in 2007, due to its economic importance and its role as model organism to study fungal fermentation. Nowadays, the genome sequences of more than 20 A.

Sclerotia formed by citric acid producing strains of Aspergillus niger: Induction and morphological analysis.

Some strains of Aspergillus niger have been previously reported to produce sclerotia under certain conditions. Sclerotia are aggregations of hyphae which can act either as survival or as sexual structures in species related to A. niger.

The fungal sexual revolution continues: discovery of sexual development in members of the genus Aspergillus and its consequences.

Asexuality was considered to be a common feature of a large part of fungi, including those of the genus Aspergillus. However, recent advances and the available genomic and genetic engineering technologies allowed to gather more and more indications of a hidden sexuality in fungi previously considered asexual. In parallel, the acquired knowledge of the most suitable conditions for crossings was shown to be crucial to effectively promote sexual reproduction in the laboratory.

Ethyl acetate production by the elusive alcohol acetyltransferase from yeast.

Ethyl acetate is an industrially relevant ester that is currently produced exclusively through unsustainable processes. Many yeasts are able to produce ethyl acetate, but the main responsible enzyme has remained elusive, hampering the engineering of novel production strains. Here we describe the discovery of a new enzyme (Eat1) from the yeast Wickerhamomyces anomalus that resulted in high ethyl acetate production when expressed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Escherichia coli.