Characterization of α-factor pheromone and pheromone receptor genes of Ashbya gossypii

• DOI: 10.1111/j.1567-1364.2011.00732.x
• Publication Date: 2011-04-14T00:08:09Z
• Authors: Jürgen Wendland; Alexander Dünkler; Andrea Walther
• Keywords: 0303 health sciences; Receptors, Peptide; Genes, Fungal; Molecular Sequence Data; Saccharomyces cerevisiae; Spores, Fungal; Eremothecium; Pheromones; Fungal Proteins; 03 medical and health sciences; Transformation, Genetic; Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal; Receptors, Mating Factor; Amino Acid Sequence; Sequence Alignment; Conserved Sequence; Sequence Deletion; Signal Transduction; Transcription Factors

The genome of Ashbya gossypii contains homologs most the genes that are part Saccharomyces cerevisiae pheromone-signal transduction cascade. However, we currently lack understanding a potential sexual cycle for this pre-whole duplication hemiascomycete. sequenced strain bears three identical copies encoding MATa. We show syntenic A. homolog MFα1 (AFL062w) does not encode mature α-factor peptide, but identified another gene, AAR163c, which encodes candidate α-specific mating pheromone and is thus reannotated as AgMFα2. expression AgSTE2α-factor receptor in an Scste2 S. MATa resulted dosage-dependent growth arrest upon exposure to gossypiiα-factor, indicated response was effectively coupled signal Comparison α-pheromones α-pheromone receptors showed greater conservation between Eremothecium cymbalariae than E. cymbalariae. constructed strains deleted STE2 STE3 receptors. These no phenotypic abnormalities ste2, ste3 double mutant still able sporulate. deletion STE12 downstream target signalling, however, led hypersporulation phenotype.