The galactose regulator GalX regulates the D-galactose oxido-reductive pathway in Aspergillus niger.. Aspergillus niger

Galactose catabolism in Aspergillus nidulans is regulated by at least two regulators, GalR and GalX. In Aspergillus niger only GalX is present, and its role in D-galactose catabolism in this fungus was investigated. Phenotypic and gene expression analysis of a wild type and a galX disruptant revealed that GalX does not substitute for the absence of GalR in A. niger, it regulates the D-galactose oxido-reductive pathway, but not the Leloir pathway. Four genes, including the recently characterized ladB (galactitol dehydrogenase) were found to have differencial expressions that are highly relevant to GalX , indicating a novel oxido-reductive pathway in A.niger . Overall design: We aim to discover differentially expressed genes in A.niger wild type strain N402 and ΔgalX mutant while growing on galactose as carbon source. Biological duplicates were made for both strains. The strains were grown O/N in complete medium with 2% frunctose and mycelium was then washed and transferred to minimal medium with 25 mM D-galactose and incubated for 2 hours. Affymetrix microarray experiments were performed RNA isolated from these samples.