Characterization of the Temperature-Sensitive Mutations un-7 and png-1 in Neurospora crassa

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0010703
• Publication Date: 2010-05-18T20:46:58Z
• Authors: Michael G. Dieterle; Aric E. Wiest; Mike Plamann; Kevin McCluskey
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; Neurospora crassa; Science; Q; Genes, Fungal; Genetic Complementation Test; Molecular Sequence Data; R; Temperature; Fungal Proteins; 03 medical and health sciences; Mutation; Medicine; Amino Acid Sequence; Sequence Alignment; Research Article

The model filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa has been studied for over fifty years and many temperature-sensitive mutants have been generated. While most of these have been mapped genetically, many remain anonymous. The mutation in the N. crassa temperature-sensitive lethal mutant un-7 was identified by a complementation based approach as being in the open reading frame designated NCU00651 on linkage group I. Other mutations in this gene have been identified that lead to a temperature-sensitive morphological phenotype called png-1. The mutations underlying un-7 result in a serine to phenylalanine change at position 273 and an isoleucine to valine change at position 390, while the mutation in png-1 was found to result in a serine to leucine change at position 279 although there were other conservative changes in this allele. The overall morphology of the strain carrying the un-7 mutation is compared to strains carrying the png-1 mutation and these mutations are evaluated in the context of other temperature-sensitive mutants in Neurospora.