Relation between CarS expression and activation of carotenogenesis by stress in .

a model organism for secondary metabolism in fungi, produces carotenoids, terpenoid pigments with antioxidant activity. Previous results indicate that carotenoid synthesis in is stimulated by light or by different stress conditions and downregulated by a RING finger protein encoded by gene. Here, we have analyzed the effects of three stressors, nitrogen scarcity, heat shock, and oxidative stress. We compared them with the effect of light in the wild type, a mutant that overproduces carotenoids, and its complemented strain. The assayed stressors increase the synthesis of carotenoids in the three strains, but mRNA levels of structural genes of carotenogenesis, and , are only enhanced in the presence of a functional gene. In the wild-type strain, the four conditions affect in different manners the mRNA levels of : greater in the presence of light, without significant changes in nitrogen starvation, and with patent decreases after heat shock or oxidative stress, suggesting different activation mechanisms. The spores of the mutant are more resistant to HO than those of the wild type; however, the mutant shows a greater HO sensitivity at the growth level, which may be due to the participation of CarS in the regulation of genes with catalase domains, formerly described. A possible mechanism of regulation by heat stress has been found in the alternative splicing of the intron of the gene, located close to its 3' end, giving rise to the formation of a shorter protein. This action could explain the inducing effect of the heat shock, but not of the other inducing conditions, which may involve other mechanisms of action on the CarS regulator, either transcriptionally or post-transcriptionally.