TY - JOUR
T1 - The Aspergillus nidulans cetA and calA genes are involved in conidial germination and cell wall morphogenesis
AU - Belaish, Ravit
AU - Sharon, Haim
AU - Levdansky, Emma
AU - Greenstein, Shulamit
AU - Shadkchan, Yana
AU - Osherov, Nir
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was funded by the Israel Academy of Sciences, Grant 280/06, to N.O.
PY - 2008/3
Y1 - 2008/3
N2 - The Aspergillus nidulans genes cetA (AN3079.2) and calA (AN7619.2) encode a novel class of fungal thaumatin-like proteins of unknown function. Deletion of cetA does not result in an observable phenotype [Greenstein, S., Shadkchan, Y., Jadoun, J., Sharon, C., Markovich, S., Osherov, N., 2006. Analysis of the Aspergillus nidulans thaumatin-like cetA gene and evidence for transcriptional repression of pyr4 expression in the cetA-disrupted strain. Fungal Genet. Biol. 43, 42-53]. We prepared knockout calA and calA/cetA A. nidulans strains. The calA mutants were phenotypically identical to the wild-type. In contrast, the cetA/calA double mutant showed a synthetic lethal phenotype suggesting that the two genes affect a single function or pathway: most of its conidia were completely inhibited in germination. Many collapsed and underwent lysis. A few showed abnormal germination characterized by short swollen hyphae and abnormal hyphal branching. Nongerminated conidia contained a single condensed nucleus suggesting a block in early germination. This is the first functional analysis of the novel cetA/calA family of thaumatin-like genes and their role in A. nidulans conidial germination. We show that CETA and CALA are secreted proteins that together play an essential role in early conidial germination.
AB - The Aspergillus nidulans genes cetA (AN3079.2) and calA (AN7619.2) encode a novel class of fungal thaumatin-like proteins of unknown function. Deletion of cetA does not result in an observable phenotype [Greenstein, S., Shadkchan, Y., Jadoun, J., Sharon, C., Markovich, S., Osherov, N., 2006. Analysis of the Aspergillus nidulans thaumatin-like cetA gene and evidence for transcriptional repression of pyr4 expression in the cetA-disrupted strain. Fungal Genet. Biol. 43, 42-53]. We prepared knockout calA and calA/cetA A. nidulans strains. The calA mutants were phenotypically identical to the wild-type. In contrast, the cetA/calA double mutant showed a synthetic lethal phenotype suggesting that the two genes affect a single function or pathway: most of its conidia were completely inhibited in germination. Many collapsed and underwent lysis. A few showed abnormal germination characterized by short swollen hyphae and abnormal hyphal branching. Nongerminated conidia contained a single condensed nucleus suggesting a block in early germination. This is the first functional analysis of the novel cetA/calA family of thaumatin-like genes and their role in A. nidulans conidial germination. We show that CETA and CALA are secreted proteins that together play an essential role in early conidial germination.
KW - Aspergillus nidulans
KW - Cell wall integrity
KW - Cell wall morphogenesis
KW - Conidial germination
KW - Thaumatin-like protein
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=38849123482&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.fgb.2007.07.005
DO - 10.1016/j.fgb.2007.07.005
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AN - SCOPUS:38849123482
SN - 1087-1845
VL - 45
SP - 232
EP - 242
JO - Fungal Genetics and Biology
JF - Fungal Genetics and Biology
IS - 3
ER -