Autophagy is a well-known degradation system, induced by nutrient starvation, in which cytoplasmic components and organelles are digested via vacuoles/lysosomes. Recently, it was reported that autophagy is involved in the turnover of cellular components, development, differentiation, immune responses, protection against pathogens, and cell death. In this study, we isolated the ATG8 gene homologue Aoatg8 from the filamentous fungus Aspergillus oryzae and visualized autophagy by the expression of DsRed2-AoAtg8 and enhanced green fluorescent protein-AoAtg8 fusion proteins in this fungus. While the fusion proteins were localized in dot structures which are preautophagosomal structure-like structures under normal growth conditions, starvation or rapamycin treatment caused their accumulation in vacuoles. DsRed2 expressed in the cytoplasm was also taken up into vacuoles under starvation conditions or during the differentiation of conidiophores and conidial germination. Deletion mutants of Aoatg8 did not form aerial hyphae and conidia, and DsRed2 was not localized in vacuoles under starvation conditions, indicating that Aoatg8 is essential for autophagy. Furthermore, Aoatg8 conditional mutants showed delayed conidial germination in the absence of nitrogen sources. These results suggest that autophagy functions in both the differentiation of aerial hyphae and in conidial germination in A. oryzae.Autophagy is a protein degradation system that is conserved in eukaryotic cells and used to recycle macromolecules and aid cell survival under nutritional starvation conditions (12, 13). When autophagy is induced, bulk cytoplasm and/or organelles are sequestered within double-membrane vesicles termed autophagosomes. The outer membranes of the autophagosomes then fuse to the vacuolar/lysosomal membrane and deliver single-membrane vesicles, called autophagic bodies, into the lumina of the vacuoles/lysosomes. The subsequent breakdown of the vesicle membranes allows the degradation of the contents of the autophagic bodies by vacuolar hydrolases. ATG8 is an autophagy-related gene found in Saccharomyces cerevisiae that plays an important role in the formation of autophagosomes (9). Atg8 is localized in the membranes of preautophagosomal structures (PAS), autophagosomes, and autophagic bodies and has therefore been used as a marker of these organelles (33).In addition to helping cells to survive starvation, autophagy is involved in stress-induced differentiation and development. In S. cerevisiae diploid cells, atg mutations block starvationinduced sporulation (34). In Dictyostelium discoideum, starvation, overcrowding, and high temperature induce the formation of fruiting bodies and atg mutations block these multicellular developmental processes (25). Additionally, in Caenorhabditis elegans, atg mutations result in abnormal dauer development, which is also induced by starvation, overcrowding, high temperature and so on (17). Recent studies have suggested that autophagy might participate in diseases such as cancer, liver disease, muscula...

Filamentous fungi consist of continuum of multinucleate cells called hyphae, and proliferate by means of hyphal tip growth. Accordingly, research interest has been focusing on hyphal tip cells, but little is known about basal cells in colony interior that do not directly contribute to proliferation. Here, we show that autophagy mediates degradation of basal cell components in the filamentous fungus Aspergillus oryzae. In basal cells, enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP)-labeled peroxisomes, mitochondria, and even nuclei were taken up into vacuoles in an autophagy-dependent manner. During this process, crescents of autophagosome precursors matured into ring-like autophagosomes to encircle apparently whole nuclei. The ring-like autophagosomes then disappeared, followed by dispersal of the nuclear material throughout the vacuoles, suggesting the autophagy-mediated degradation of whole nuclei. We also demonstrated that colony growth in a nutrient-depleted medium was significantly inhibited in the absence of functional autophagy. This is a first report describing autophagy-mediated degradation of whole nuclei, as well as suggesting a novel strategy of filamentous fungi to degrade components of existing hyphae for use as nutrients to support mycelial growth in order to counteract starvation.

We report here a development of the MultiSite Gateway TM -based versatile plasmid construction system applicable for the rapid and efficient preparation of Aspergillus oryzae expression plasmids. This system allows the simultaneous connection of the three DNA fragments inserted in entry clones along with a destination vector in a defined order and orientation. We prepared a variety of entry clones and destination vectors containing promoters, genes encoding carrierproteins and fusion tags, and selectable markers, which makes it possible to generate 80 expression plasmids for each target protein. Using this system, plasmids for expression of the EGFP fused with the mitochondrialtargeting signal of citrate synthase (AoCit1) were generated. Tubular structures of mitochondria were visualized in the transformants expressing the AoCit1-EGFP fusion protein. This plasmid construction system allows us to prepare a large number of expression plasmids without laborious DNA manipulations, which would facilitate molecular biological studies on A. oryzae.

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