scholarly journals Functional Characterization of MAT1-1-Specific Mating-Type Genes in the Homothallic Ascomycete Sordaria macrospora Provides New Insights into Essential and Nonessential Sexual Regulators

2010 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 894-905 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Klix ◽  
M. Nowrousian ◽  
C. Ringelberg ◽  
J. J. Loros ◽  
J. C. Dunlap ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mating Type ◽  
Sexual Development ◽  
Fruiting Body ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Sordaria Macrospora ◽  
Body Development ◽  
Protein Encoding ◽  
Fruiting Body Development ◽  
Mating Type Genes ◽  
Domain Protein

ABSTRACT Mating-type genes in fungi encode regulators of mating and sexual development. Heterothallic ascomycete species require different sets of mating-type genes to control nonself-recognition and mating of compatible partners of different mating types. Homothallic (self-fertile) species also carry mating-type genes in their genome that are essential for sexual development. To analyze the molecular basis of homothallism and the role of mating-type genes during fruiting-body development, we deleted each of the three genes, SmtA-1 (MAT1-1-1), SmtA-2 (MAT1-1-2), and SmtA-3 (MAT1-1-3), contained in the MAT1-1 part of the mating-type locus of the homothallic ascomycete species Sordaria macrospora. Phenotypic analysis of deletion mutants revealed that the PPF domain protein-encoding gene SmtA-2 is essential for sexual reproduction, whereas the α domain protein-encoding genes SmtA-1 and SmtA-3 play no role in fruiting-body development. By means of cross-species microarray analysis using Neurospora crassa oligonucleotide microarrays hybridized with S. macrospora targets and quantitative real-time PCR, we identified genes expressed under the control of SmtA-1 and SmtA-2. Both genes are involved in the regulation of gene expression, including that of pheromone genes.

scholarly journals Global Gene Expression and Focused Knockout Analysis Reveals Genes Associated with Fungal Fruiting Body Development in Neurospora crassa

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 154-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zheng Wang ◽  
Francesc Lopez-Giraldez ◽  
Nina Lehr ◽  
Marta Farré ◽  
Ralph Common ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Neurospora Crassa ◽  
Sexual Development ◽  
Fruiting Body ◽  
Rna Silencing ◽  
Global Gene Expression ◽  
Gene Encoding ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Body Development ◽  
Fruiting Body Development

ABSTRACTFungi can serve as highly tractable models for understanding genetic basis of sexual development in multicellular organisms. Applying a reverse-genetic approach to advance such a model, we used random and multitargeted primers to assay gene expression across perithecial development inNeurospora crassa. We found that functionally unclassified proteins accounted for most upregulated genes, whereas downregulated genes were enriched for diverse functions. Moreover, genes associated with developmental traits exhibited stage-specific peaks of expression. Expression increased significantly across sexual development for mating type genemat a-1and format A-1specific pheromone precursorccg-4. In addition, expression of a gene encoding a protein similar to zinc finger,stc1, was highly upregulated early in perithecial development, and a strain with a knockout of this gene exhibited arrest at the same developmental stage. A similar expression pattern was observed for genes in RNA silencing and signaling pathways, and strains with knockouts of these genes were also arrested at stages of perithecial development that paralleled their peak in expression. The observed stage specificity allowed us to correlate expression upregulation and developmental progression and to identify regulators of sexual development. Bayesian networks inferred from our expression data revealed previously known and new putative interactions between RNA silencing genes and pathways. Overall, our analysis provides a fine-scale transcriptomic landscape and novel inferences regarding the control of the multistage development process of sexual crossing and fruiting body development inN. crassa.

scholarly journals A MADS Box Protein Interacts with a Mating-Type Protein and Is Required for Fruiting Body Development in the Homothallic Ascomycete Sordaria macrospora

2006 ◽  
Vol 5 (7) ◽  
pp. 1043-1056 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Nolting ◽  
Stefanie Pöggeler
Keyword(s):  
Mating Type ◽  
Fruiting Body ◽  
Mads Box ◽  
Type Locus ◽  
Sordaria Macrospora ◽  
Body Development ◽  
Fruiting Body Development ◽  
Putative Transcription Factor ◽  
Putative Homologue

ABSTRACT MADS box transcription factors control diverse developmental processes in plants, metazoans, and fungi. To analyze the involvement of MADS box proteins in fruiting body development of filamentous ascomycetes, we isolated the mcm1 gene from the homothallic ascomycete Sordaria macrospora, which encodes a putative homologue of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae MADS box protein Mcm1p. Deletion of the S. macrospora mcm1 gene resulted in reduced biomass, increased hyphal branching, and reduced hyphal compartment length during vegetative growth. Furthermore, the S. macrospora Δmcm1 strain was unable to produce fruiting bodies or ascospores during sexual development. A yeast two-hybrid analysis in conjugation with in vitro analyses demonstrated that the S. macrospora MCM1 protein can interact with the putative transcription factor SMTA-1, encoded by the S. macrospora mating-type locus. These results suggest that the S. macrospora MCM1 protein is involved in the transcriptional regulation of mating-type-specific genes as well as in fruiting body development.

scholarly journals Mating-Type Genes From the Homothallic Fungus Sordaria macrospora Are Functionally Expressed in a Heterothallic Ascomycete

Genetics ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 147 (2) ◽  
pp. 567-580 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefanie Pöggeler ◽  
Siegfried Risch ◽  
Ulrich Kück ◽  
Heinz D Osiewacz
Keyword(s):  
Mating Type ◽  
Fruiting Body ◽  
Podospora Anserina ◽  
Open Reading Frames ◽  
Fruiting Body Formation ◽  
Type Locus ◽  
Sordaria Macrospora ◽  
Mating Type Locus ◽  
Body Development ◽  
Mating Type Genes

Homokaryons from the homothallic ascomycte Sordaria macrospora are able to enter the sexual pathway and to form fertile fruiting bodies. To analyze the molecular basis of homothallism and to elucidate the role of mating-products during fruiting body development, we cloned and sequenced the entire S. macrospora mating-type locus. Comparison of the Sordaria mating-type locus with mating-type idiomorphs from the heterothallic ascomycetes Neurospora crassa and Podospora anserina revealed that sequences from both idiomorphs (A/a and mat–/mat+, respectively) are contiguous in S. macrospora. DNA sequencing of the S. macrospora mating-type region allowed the identification of four open reading frames (ORFs), which were termed Smt-a1, SmtA-1, SmtA-2 and SmtA-3. While Smt-a1, SmtA-1, and SmtA-2 show strong sequence similarities with the corresponding N. crassa mating-type ORFs, SmtA-3 has a chimeric character. It comprises sequences that are similar to the A and a mating-type idiomorph from N. crassa. To determine functionality of the S. macrospora mating-type genes, we show that all ORFs are transcriptionally expressed. Furthermore, we transformed the S. macrospora mating-type genes into mat– and mat+ strains of the closely related heterothallic fungus P. anserina. The transformation experiments show that mating-type genes from S. macrospora induce fruiting body formation in P. anserina.

scholarly journals The Glyoxysomal Protease LON2 Is Involved in Fruiting-Body Development, Ascosporogenesis and Stress Resistance in Sordaria macrospora

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 82
Author(s):  
Antonia Werner ◽  
Kolja Otte ◽  
Gertrud Stahlhut ◽  
Leon M. Hanke ◽  
Stefanie Pöggeler
Keyword(s):  
Quality Control ◽  
Fruiting Body ◽  
Protein Quality ◽  
Model Organism ◽  
Protein Quality Control ◽  
Stress Conditions ◽  
Dual Function ◽  
Sordaria Macrospora ◽  
Body Development ◽  
Fruiting Body Development

Microbodies, including peroxisomes, glyoxysomes and Woronin bodies, are ubiquitous dynamic organelles that play important roles in fungal development. The ATP-dependent chaperone and protease family Lon that maintain protein quality control within the organelle significantly regulate the functionality of microbodies. The filamentous ascomycete Sordaria macrospora is a model organism for studying fruiting-body development. The genome of S. macrospora encodes one Lon protease with the C-terminal peroxisomal targeting signal (PTS1) serine-arginine-leucine (SRL) for import into microbodies. Here, we investigated the function of the protease SmLON2 in sexual development and during growth under stress conditions. Localization studies revealed a predominant localization of SmLON2 in glyoxysomes. This localization depends on PTS1, since a variant without the C-terminal SRL motif was localized in the cytoplasm. A ΔSmlon2 mutant displayed a massive production of aerial hyphae, and produced a reduced number of fruiting bodies and ascospores. In addition, the growth of the ΔSmlon2 mutant was completely blocked under mild oxidative stress conditions. Most of the defects could be complemented with both variants of SmLON2, with and without PTS1, suggesting a dual function of SmLON2, not only in microbody, but also in cytosolic protein quality control.

scholarly journals The pro1+ Gene From Sordaria macrospora Encodes a C6 Zinc Finger Transcription Factor Required for Fruiting Body Development

Genetics ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 152 (1) ◽  
pp. 191-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Masloff ◽  
Stefanie Pöggeler ◽  
Ulrich Kück
Keyword(s):  
Zinc Finger ◽  
Fruiting Body ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Developmental Process ◽  
Open Reading Frame ◽  
Cosmid Library ◽  
Reading Frame ◽  
Sordaria Macrospora ◽  
Body Development ◽  
Fruiting Body Development

Abstract During sexual morphogenesis, the filamentous ascomycete Sordaria macrospora differentiates into multicellular fruiting bodies called perithecia. Previously it has been shown that this developmental process is under polygenic control. To further understand the molecular mechanisms involved in fruiting body formation, we generated the protoperithecia forming mutant pro1, in which the normal development of protoperithecia into perithecia has been disrupted. We succeeded in isolating a cosmid clone from an indexed cosmid library, which was able to complement the pro1- mutation. Deletion analysis, followed by DNA sequencing, subsequently demonstrated that fertility was restored to the pro1 mutant by an open reading frame encoding a 689-amino-acid polypeptide, which we named PRO1. A region from this polypeptide shares significant homology with the DNA-binding domains found in fungal C6 zinc finger transcription factors, such as the GAL4 protein from yeast. However, other typical regions of C6 zinc finger proteins, such as dimerization elements, are absent in PRO1. The involvement of the pro1+ gene in fruiting body development was further confirmed by trying to complement the mutant phenotype with in vitro mutagenized and truncated versions of the pro1 open reading frame. Southern hybridization experiments also indicated that pro1+ homologues are present in other sexually propagating filamentous ascomycetes.

New insights from an old mutant: SPADIX4 governs fruiting body development but not hyphal fusion in Sordaria macrospora

2016 ◽  
Vol 292 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ines Teichert ◽  
Miriam Lutomski ◽  
Ramona Märker ◽  
Minou Nowrousian ◽  
Ulrich Kück
Keyword(s):  
Fruiting Body ◽  
Hyphal Fusion ◽  
Sordaria Macrospora ◽  
Body Development ◽  
Fruiting Body Development

scholarly journals ENVOY Is a Major Determinant in Regulation of Sexual Development in Hypocrea jecorina ( Trichoderma reesei )

2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 885-895 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Seibel ◽  
Doris Tisch ◽  
Christian P. Kubicek ◽  
Monika Schmoll
Keyword(s):  
Trichoderma Reesei ◽  
Mating Type ◽  
Sexual Development ◽  
Fruiting Body ◽  
Dependent Manner ◽  
Hypocrea Jecorina ◽  
Fruiting Body Formation ◽  
Transcript Levels ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Body Formation

ABSTRACT Light is one crucial environmental signal which can determine whether a fungus reproduces asexually or initiates sexual development. Mating in the ascomycete Hypocrea jecorina (anamorph Trichoderma reesei ) occurs preferentially in light. We therefore investigated the relevance of the light response machinery for sexual development in H. jecorina . We found that the photoreceptors BLR1 and BLR2 and the light-regulatory protein ENV1 have no effect on male fertility, while ENV1 is essential for female fertility. BLR1 and BLR2 were found to impact fruiting body formation although they are not essential for mating. Quantitative reverse transcription-PCR (qRT-PCR) analyses revealed that BLR1, BLR2, and ENV1 negatively regulate transcript levels of both pheromone receptors as well as peptide pheromone precursors in light but not in darkness and in a mating type-dependent manner. The effect of BLR1 and BLR2 on regulation of pheromone precursor and receptor genes is less severe than that of ENV1 as strains lacking env1 show 100-fold (for ppg1 ) to more than 100,000-fold (for hpp1 ) increased transcript levels of pheromone precursor genes as well as more than 20-fold increased levels of hpr1 , the pheromone receptor receiving the HPP1 signal in a MAT1-1 strain. ENV1 likely integrates additional signals besides light, and our results indicate that its function is partially mediated via regulation of mat1-2-1 . We conclude that ENV1 is essential for balancing the levels of genes regulated in a mating-type-dependent manner, which contributes to determination of sexual identity and fruiting body formation.

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