AoxA is a major peroxisomal long chain fatty acyl-CoA oxidase required for β-oxidation in A. nidulans

Abstract

Filamentous fungi can use a variety of fatty acids (FA) as sole carbon and energy sources. Aspergillus nidulans has been shown to possess both peroxisomal and mitochondrial β-oxidation pathways. In these studies, the major peroxisomal long chain fatty acyl coenzyme A oxidase AoxA was identified. AoxA was shown to be localised to peroxisomes and deletion of the aoxA gene leads to reduced growth on long chain FA, but not on short chain FA. AoxA is predicted to be part of the same peroxisomal β-oxidation pathway as the bifunctional protein FoxA. In addition, an aoxA(p)lacZ reporter gene construct is induced by short and long chain FA and the induction is dependent on the transcriptional regulat..