Relative contribution of three transporters to D-xylose uptake in <i>Aspergillus niger</i>

Jiali Meng; Astrid Müller; Jiajia Li; Vivien Bíró; Alexandra Márton; Erzsébet Fekete; Levente Karaffa; Miia R. Mäkelä; Ronald P. de Vries; Jiali Meng; Astrid Müller; Jiajia Li; Vivien Bíró; Alexandra Márton; Erzsébet Fekete; Levente Karaffa; Miia R. Mäkelä; Ronald P. de Vries

doi:10.3934/microbiol.2025037

AIMS Microbiology

2025, Volume 11, Issue 4: 877-888. doi: 10.3934/microbiol.2025037

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Research article

Relative contribution of three transporters to D-xylose uptake in Aspergillus niger

1.
Fungal Physiology, Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute & Fungal Molecular Physiology, Utrecht University, Uppsalalaan 8, 3584 CT Utrecht, The Netherlands
2.
Department of Biochemical Engineering, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary
3.
Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems, School of Chemical Engineering, Aalto University, 02150 Espoo, Finland
#.
Current address: Ningbo Excare Pharm Inc., No.172, Xizishan Rd, Ningbo, Zhejiang, China

Received: 01 August 2025 Revised: 13 October 2025 Accepted: 17 October 2025 Published: 03 December 2025

The production of biofuels and chemicals from D-xylose is a promising option as D-xylose is the second most abundant sugar after D-glucose in lignocellulosic biomass. In microbes, efficient D-xylose uptake is a prerequisite for its utilization. Therefore, increasing D-xylose uptake efficiency by manipulation of D-xylose transporters would be an attractive strategy to improve fungal cell factories that use D-xylose as a substrate. In this study, we compared the contribution of three D-xylose transporters (XltA, XltB, XltD) from Aspergillus niger to overall D-xylose uptake at two D-xylose concentrations.
XltA and XltD contributed similarly to D-xylose uptake, while the role of XltB was minimal. However, even in the absence of all three transporters, D-xylose uptake still occurred, indicating the involvement of additional transporters. Surprisingly, there was no clear correlation between the kinetic characteristics of the transporters nor the expression profile of their corresponding genes with their influence on D-xylose transport. This suggests that selection of transporters for metabolic engineering of filamentous fungal cell factories based solely on kinetic parameters originating from heterologous expression of the transporters in yeast may not be a very efficient and reliable strategy.
- Sugar transport,
- xylose,
- Aspergillus niger,
- gene expression,
- xylose uptake
Citation: Jiali Meng, Astrid Müller, Jiajia Li, Vivien Bíró, Alexandra Márton, Erzsébet Fekete, Levente Karaffa, Miia R. Mäkelä, Ronald P. de Vries. Relative contribution of three transporters to D-xylose uptake in Aspergillus niger[J]. AIMS Microbiology, 2025, 11(4): 877-888. doi: 10.3934/microbiol.2025037

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Abstract

The production of biofuels and chemicals from D-xylose is a promising option as D-xylose is the second most abundant sugar after D-glucose in lignocellulosic biomass. In microbes, efficient D-xylose uptake is a prerequisite for its utilization. Therefore, increasing D-xylose uptake efficiency by manipulation of D-xylose transporters would be an attractive strategy to improve fungal cell factories that use D-xylose as a substrate. In this study, we compared the contribution of three D-xylose transporters (XltA, XltB, XltD) from Aspergillus niger to overall D-xylose uptake at two D-xylose concentrations.

XltA and XltD contributed similarly to D-xylose uptake, while the role of XltB was minimal. However, even in the absence of all three transporters, D-xylose uptake still occurred, indicating the involvement of additional transporters. Surprisingly, there was no clear correlation between the kinetic characteristics of the transporters nor the expression profile of their corresponding genes with their influence on D-xylose transport. This suggests that selection of transporters for metabolic engineering of filamentous fungal cell factories based solely on kinetic parameters originating from heterologous expression of the transporters in yeast may not be a very efficient and reliable strategy.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the China Scholarship Council (CSC student number: CSC201907720027 to JM) and the Research Council of Finland (grant no. 308284 to MRM) and the Novo Nordisk Foundation (grant no. NNF21OC0067087 to MRM) and the Hungarian National Research, Development, and Innovation Fund (grants numbers K 146406 to LK and K 138489 to EF).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Author contributions

JM: Investigation, Funding Acquisition, Methodology, Writing–Original Draft Preparation; AMü: Investigation, Writing–Review & Editing; JL: Data Curation, Methodology, Formal Analysis, Writing–Review & Editing; VB: Investigation, AMa: Investigation, EF: Supervision, Writin –Review & Editing; LK: Funding Acquisition, Supervision, Writing–Review & Editing; MRM: Funding Acquisition, Writing – Review & Editing; RPdV: Conceptualization, Funding Acquisition, Resources, Supervision, Writing – Original Draft Preparation.

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