Dynamic Surface Proteomes of Allergenic Fungal Conidia

Fungal
spores and hyphal fragments play an important role as allergens
in respiratory diseases. In this study, we performed trypsin shaving
and secretome analyses to identify the surface-exposed proteins and
secreted/shed proteins of Aspergillus fumigatus conidia, respectively. We investigated the surface proteome under
different conditions, including temperature variation and germination.
We found that the surface proteome of resting A. fumigatus conidia is not static but instead unexpectedly dynamic, as evidenced
by drastically different surface proteomes under different growth
conditions. Knockouts of two abundant A. fumigatus surface proteins, ScwA and CweA, were found to function only in
fine-tuning the cell wall stress response, implying that the conidial
surface is very robust against perturbations. We then compared the
surface proteome of A. fumigatus to
other allergy-inducing molds, including Alternaria
alternata, Penicillium rubens, and Cladosporium herbarum, and performed
comparative proteomics on resting and swollen conidia, as well as
secreted proteins from germinating conidia. We detected 125 protein
ortholog groups, including 80 with putative catalytic activity, in
the extracellular region of all four molds, and 42 nonorthologous
proteins produced solely by A. fumigatus. Ultimately, this study highlights the dynamic nature of the A. fumigatus conidial surface and provides targets
for future diagnostics and immunotherapy.

真菌孢子及菌丝碎片在呼吸系统疾病中的过敏原作用举足轻重。本研究中，我们通过胰蛋白酶脱皮和分泌组分析，分别识别了烟曲霉分生孢子表面的暴露蛋白和分泌/脱落蛋白。我们探讨了在不同条件下，包括温度变化和萌发过程中的表面蛋白质组。研究发现，静止的烟曲霉分生孢子的表面蛋白质组并非静态，而是在不同生长条件下表现出意想不到的动态性，这一点在不同生长条件下的表面蛋白质组的显著差异中得到了证实。我们发现，两种丰富的烟曲霉表面蛋白ScwA和CweA的敲除仅在微调细胞壁应激反应中发挥作用，这表明分生孢子的表面对干扰具有极高的抗性。随后，我们比较了烟曲霉与其他致敏霉菌（如Alternaria alternata、Penicillium rubens和Cladosporium herbarum）的表面蛋白质组，并对静止和膨胀的分生孢子以及萌发分生孢子的分泌蛋白进行了比较蛋白质组学分析。在所有四种霉菌的细胞外区域检测到了125个蛋白质直系同源群，其中80个具有潜在的催化活性，以及由烟曲霉单独产生的42个非直系同源蛋白。最终，这项研究突出了烟曲霉分生孢子表面的动态特性，并为未来的诊断和免疫治疗提供了靶点。