Translocated duplication of a targeted chromosomal segment enhances gene expression at the duplicated site and results in phenotypic changes in Aspergillus oryzae

BACKGROUND: Translocated chromosomal duplications occur spontaneously in many organisms; segmental duplications of large chromosomal regions are expected to result in phenotypic changes because of gene dosage effects. Therefore, experimentally generated segmental duplications in targeted chromosomal regions can be used to study phenotypic changes and determine the functions of unknown genes in these regions. Previously, we performed tandem duplication of a targeted chromosomal segment in Aspergillus oryzae. However, in tandem chromosomal duplication, duplication of chromosomal ends and multiple chromosomal duplication are difficult. In this study, we aimed to generate fungal strains with a translocated duplication or triplication of a targeted chromosomal region via break-induced replication. RESULTS: Double-strand breaks were introduced into chromosomes of parental strains by treating protoplast cells with I-SceI meganuclease. Subsequently, strains were generated by nonreciprocal translocation of a 1.4-Mb duplicated region of chromosome 2 to the end of chromosome 4. Another strain, containing a triplicated region of chromosome 2, was generated by translocating a 1.4-Mb region of chromosome 2 onto the ends of chromosomes 4 and 7. Phenotypic analyses of the strains containing segmental duplication or triplication of chromosome 2 showed remarkable increases in protease and amylase activities in solid-state cultures. Protease activity was further increased in strains containing the duplication and triplication after overexpression of the transcriptional activator of proteases prtT. This indicates that the gene-dosage effect and resulting phenotypes of the duplicated chromosomal region were enhanced by multiple duplications, and by the combination of the structural gene and its regulatory genes. Gene expression analysis, conducted using oligonucleotide microarrays, showed increased transcription of a large population of genes located in duplicated or triplicated chromosomal regions. CONCLUSION: In this study, we performed translocated chromosomal duplications and triplications of a 1.4-Mb targeted region of chromosome 2. Strains containing a duplication of chromosome 2 showed significant increases in protease and amylase activities; these enzymatic activities were further increased in the strain containing a triplication of chromosome 2. This indicates that segmental duplications of chromosomes enhance gene-dosage effects, and that the resulting phenotypes play important phenotypic roles in A. oryzae. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s40694-018-0061-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.