Faculty Collaboration Database

Genome characterization of the oleaginous fungus Mortierella alpina. PLoS One 2011;6(12):e28319

Date

12/17/2011

Pubmed ID

22174787

Pubmed Central ID

PMC3234268

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0028319

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-82955201624 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   141 Citations

Abstract

Mortierella alpina is an oleaginous fungus which can produce lipids accounting for up to 50% of its dry weight in the form of triacylglycerols. It is used commercially for the production of arachidonic acid. Using a combination of high throughput sequencing and lipid profiling, we have assembled the M. alpina genome, mapped its lipogenesis pathway and determined its major lipid species. The 38.38 Mb M. alpina genome shows a high degree of gene duplications. Approximately 50% of its 12,796 gene models, and 60% of genes in the predicted lipogenesis pathway, belong to multigene families. Notably, M. alpina has 18 lipase genes, of which 11 contain the class 2 lipase domain and may share a similar function. M. alpina's fatty acid synthase is a single polypeptide containing all of the catalytic domains required for fatty acid synthesis from acetyl-CoA and malonyl-CoA, whereas in many fungi this enzyme is comprised of two polypeptides. Major lipids were profiled to confirm the products predicted in the lipogenesis pathway. M. alpina produces a complex mixture of glycerolipids, glycerophospholipids and sphingolipids. In contrast, only two major sterol lipids, desmosterol and 24(28)-methylene-cholesterol, were detected. Phylogenetic analysis based on genes involved in lipid metabolism suggests that oleaginous fungi may have acquired their lipogenic capacity during evolution after the divergence of Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, Chytridiomycota and Mucoromycota. Our study provides the first draft genome and comprehensive lipid profile for M. alpina, and lays the foundation for possible genetic engineering of M. alpina to produce higher levels and diverse contents of dietary lipids.

Author List

Wang L, Chen W, Feng Y, Ren Y, Gu Z, Chen H, Wang H, Thomas MJ, Zhang B, Berquin IM, Li Y, Wu J, Zhang H, Song Y, Liu X, Norris JS, Wang S, Du P, Shen J, Wang N, Yang Y, Wang W, Feng L, Ratledge C, Zhang H, Chen YQ

Author

Michael J. Thomas PhD Professor in the Pharmacology and Toxicology department at Medical College of Wisconsin

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Chromosome Mapping
Fatty Acids
Fungal Proteins
Genome, Fungal
Genome, Mitochondrial
Lipids
Lipogenesis
Mortierella
Multigene Family
Phylogeny
Protein Structure, Tertiary
Reproduction, Asexual
Staining and Labeling