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The Janus transcription factor HapX controls fungal adaptation to both iron starvation and iron excess.

ABSTRACT: Balance of physiological levels of iron is essential for every organism. In Aspergillus fumigatus and other fungal pathogens, the transcription factor HapX mediates adaptation to iron limitation and consequently virulence by repressing iron consumption and activating iron uptake. Here, we demonstrate that HapX is also essential for iron resistance via activating vacuolar iron storage. We identified HapX protein domains that are essential for HapX functions during either iron starvation or high-iron conditions. The evolutionary conservation of these domains indicates their wide-spread role in iron sensing. We further demonstrate that a HapX homodimer and the CCAAT-binding complex (CBC) cooperatively bind an evolutionary conserved DNA motif in a target promoter. The latter reveals the mode of discrimination between general CBC and specific HapX/CBC target genes. Collectively, our study uncovers a novel regulatory mechanism mediating both iron resistance and adaptation to iron starvation by the same transcription factor complex with activating and repressing functions depending on ambient iron availability.

SUBMITTER: Gsaller F

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4232046 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The Janus transcription factor HapX controls fungal adaptation to both iron starvation and iron excess.

Gsaller Fabio F Hortschansky Peter P Beattie Sarah R SR Klammer Veronika V Tuppatsch Katja K Lechner Beatrix E BE Rietzschel Nicole N Werner Ernst R ER Vogan Aaron A AA Chung Dawoon D Mühlenhoff Ulrich U Kato Masashi M Cramer Robert A RA Brakhage Axel A AA Haas Hubertus H

The EMBO journal 20140804 19

Balance of physiological levels of iron is essential for every organism. In Aspergillus fumigatus and other fungal pathogens, the transcription factor HapX mediates adaptation to iron limitation and consequently virulence by repressing iron consumption and activating iron uptake. Here, we demonstrate that HapX is also essential for iron resistance via activating vacuolar iron storage. We identified HapX protein domains that are essential for HapX functions during either iron starvation or high-i ...[more]

PMID: 25092765

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Project description:Iron is an essential cofactor for a wide range of cellular processes. Previous studies have shown that siderophore-mediated uptake and intracellular handling of iron are crucial for virulence of Aspergillus fumigatus. Here we show that the bzip-type transcription factor HapX plays a crucial role in the transcriptional remodeling required for adaption to iron starvation in this opportunistic fungal pathogen. HapX was found to be interconnected in a negative feed-back loop with the previously identified iron regulator SreA: SreA repressed expression of hapX during iron sufficiency and HapX repressed sreA during iron starvation. Genome-wide transcriptional profiling and analysis of selected metabolites (protophorphyrine IX, siderophores and amino acids) indicated extensive metabolic remodeling in response to iron starvation. HapX was found to participate in both, repression and activation of genes during iron starvation. HapX was in particular required for repression of iron-dependent and mitochondrial-localized activities including respiration, TCA cycle, amino acid metabolism, iron-sulfur-cluster biosynthesis and heme biosynthesis. Pathways positively affected by HapX included production of siderophores and the ribotoxin and major allergen AspF1. Analysis of the free amino acid pool revealed HapX-dependent coordination of the production of siderophores with the supply of its precursor ornithine. Consistent with the hapX expression pattern, HapX-deficiency was deleterious with respect to growth rate and conidiation during iron depleted but not iron-replete conditions. HapX-deficiency caused significant attenuation of virulence in a murine model aspergillosis underlining that A. fumigatus faces iron starvation in the host and that the HapX-dependent metabolic reprogramming is therefore crucial for virulence. A. fumigatus 293 and hapX mutants were grown in the presence and absence of iron and in cultures shifted from no iron to iron-containing conditions after 1 h incubation. Hybridizations were performed with biological replicates for wt vs hapX +/- iron. For the iron-shift experiments, there were biological replicates for wt in both conditions and for hapX in -iron but there was only a single biological sample for hapX iron-shift sample. All hybs were performed with flip-dye pairs.

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The Janus transcription factor HapX controls fungal adaptation to both iron starvation and iron excess.

Publications

The Janus transcription factor HapX controls fungal adaptation to both iron starvation and iron excess.

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