Intraspecies Volatile Interactions Affect Growth Rates and Exometabolomes in Aspergillus oryzae KCCM 60345

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are increasingly been recognized as the chemical mediators of mold interactions, shaping their community dynamics, growth, and metabolism. Herein, we selectively examined the time-correlated (0 D-11 D, where D = incubation days) effects of intraspecies VOC-mediated interactions (VMI) on Aspergillus oryzae KCCM 60345 (S1), following co-cultivation with partner strain A. oryzae KACC 44967 (S2), in a specially designed twin plate assembly. The comparative evaluation of S1_VMI (S1 subjected to VMI with S2) and its control (S1_Con) showed a notable disparity in their radial growth (S1_VMI < S1_Con) at 5 D, protease activity (S1_VMI > S1_Con) at 3-5 D, amylase activity (S1_VMI < S1_Con) at 3-5 D, and antioxidant levels (S1_VMI > S1_Con) at 3 D. Furthermore, we observed a distinct clustering pattern for gas chromatography-time of flight-mass spectrometry datasets from 5 D extracts of S1_VMI and S1_Con in principle component analysis (PC1: 30.85%; PC2: 10.31%) and partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) (PLS1: 30.77; PLS2: 10.15%). Overall, 43 significantly discriminant metabolites were determined for engendering the metabolic variance based on the PLS-DA model (VIP > 0.7, p < 0.05). In general, a marked disparity in the relative abundance of amino acids (S1_VMI > S1_Con) at 5 D, organic acids (S1_VMI > S1_Con) at 5 D, and kojic acid (S1_VMI < S1_Con) at 5-7 D were observed. Examining the headspace VOCs shared between S1 and S2 in the twin plate for 5 D incubated samples, we observed the relatively higher abundance of C-8 VOCs (1-octen-3-ol, (5Z)-octa-1,5-dien-3-ol, 3-octanone, 1-octen-3-ol acetate) having known semiochemical functions. The present study potentially illuminates the effects of VMI on commercially important A. oryzae's growth and biochemical phenotypes with subtle details of altered metabolomes.