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

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 beta-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 beta-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 regulators FarA, FarB and ScfA with FarA being required for the induction by short chain as well as long chain FA and FarB and ScfA being required for induction of aoxA by short chain FA. It is proposed that there are additional peroxisomal beta-oxidation pathways in A. nidulans, which include fatty acyl-CoA dehydrogenases with a partially overlapping substrate range and include a pathway for short chain FA.