We aimed her mainly to evaluate the contribution of newly employed bromate selection system, in obtaining new Aspergillus niger nitrate/nitrite assimilation defective mutants, through Ultraviolet treatment (UV), 1, 2, 7, 8-Diepoxyoctane (DEO), phenols mixture (Phx)) and spontaneous treatments. The newly employed bromate selection system was able to specify only two putative novel mutant types designated brn (bromate resistant but chlorate sensitive (RS) strain, which may specify nitrite specific transporter) and cbrn mutants (bromate resistant and chlorate resistant strain, which may specify nitrate/nitrite bispecific system). The most relevant and innovative findings of this research work involve the isolation of the RR (cbrn) mutants (a new type of nitrate assimilation defective mutants), that could be useful for studying the bispecific nitrate /nitrite transporter system. The majority of obtained bromate resistant mutants (93.3% of the total mutants obtained by all treatments) were of the brn type, whereas the remaining percentage (6.76%) was given to cbrn strains. The highest percentages of brn mutant strains (48% and 58.6% of the total RS strains) were obtained with UA after spontaneous and Phx treatment, whereas Trp has generated 29% and 42% of RS strains after UV and DEO treatments, respectively. The obtained ratios of cbrn mutants were higher (i.e. in the range of 8.4%-11.64% of the total bromate mutants) with chemical treatments, especially when U.A or Pro was serving as sole N-sources at 25ºC rather than 37ºC. A 69% mutants' yield of Aspergillus niger mutant strains representing nine gene loci (niaD, cnx-6 loci, nrt and nirA) were selected on the bases of chlorate (600 mM) toxicity. All chlorate resistant mutants were completely sensitive to bromate (250 mM). The niaD mutants showed the highest percentage (73.97%) of chlorate resistant mutants obtained with all tested treatments. The UV treatment has generated the highest ratio (86.9%) of niaD mutants, whereas, the least (61%) was obtained with Phx treatment. The highest percentage of cnx mutants (32%) was obtained with Phx treatment. The DEO treatment as compared to other tested treatments was the best to use for obtaining the highest ratios of either nrt (13.8%) mutants or nirA (1.9%) mutants.
Aspergillus niger; chlorate; bromate; mutagenesis
