Use of the chemiluminescent probe lucigenin to monitor the production of the superoxide anion radical in a recombinant Aspergillus niger (B1-D).

Direct detection of intracellular superoxide anion radical (O(2)(.-)) production is of critical importance for investigating the responses of filamentous fungi to oxidative stress in bioprocesses. The purpose of this study is to establish a reliable method to monitor the O(2)(.-) production within pellets of Aspergillus niger. Addition of pure oxygen and the redox cycling agent paraquat to fungal pellet suspensions resulted in a considerable increase in lucigenin-derived chemiluminescence (LDCL). In the presence of exogenous superoxide dismutase (SOD), the LDCL of a disrupted cell solution was inhibited. In contrast, with addition of diethyldithiocarbamate and sodium azide, respectively, the inhibitors of Cu, Zn-SOD and Mn-SOD, an increased LDCL was observed. Further, as a probe, lucigenin can be absorbed and accumulated in fungal pellet within a few minutes. Various pretreatments of the bioreactor sample for the measurement of LDCL, were also investigated in the present study, and the use of intact pellets was adopted here rather than disrupting cells because the latter treatment led to difficulties in LDCL measurement. These results show that lucigenin may be used as a convenient chemiluminescent probe to monitor intracellular production of O(2)(.-) in filamentous fungi, and thus to follow changes in the level of this stressor within fungi Copyright 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.