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A cytosine methyltransferase homologue is essential for sexual development in Aspergillus nidulans.

ABSTRACT: The genome defense processes RIP (repeat-induced point mutation) in the filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa, and MIP (methylation induced premeiotically) in the fungus Ascobolus immersus depend on proteins with DNA methyltransferase (DMT) domains. Nevertheless, these proteins, RID and Masc1, respectively, have not been demonstrated to have DMT activity. We discovered a close homologue in Aspergillus nidulans, a fungus thought to have no methylation and no genome defense system comparable to RIP or MIP.We report the cloning and characterization of the DNA methyltransferase homologue A (dmtA) gene from Aspergillus nidulans. We found that the dmtA locus encodes both a sense (dmtA) and an anti-sense transcript (tmdA). Both transcripts are expressed in vegetative, conidial and sexual tissues. We determined that dmtA, but not tmdA, is required for early sexual development and formation of viable ascospores. We also tested if DNA methylation accumulated in any of the dmtA/tmdA mutants we constructed, and found that in both asexual and sexual tissues, these mutants, just like wild-type strains, appear devoid of DNA methylation.Our results demonstrate that a DMT homologue closely related to proteins implicated in RIP and MIP has an essential developmental function in a fungus that appears to lack both DNA methylation and RIP or MIP. It remains formally possible that DmtA is a bona fide DMT, responsible for trace, undetected DNA methylation that is restricted to a few cells or transient but our work supports the idea that the DMT domain present in the RID/Masc1/DmtA family has a previously undescribed function.

SUBMITTER: Lee DW

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2432034 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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A cytosine methyltransferase homologue is essential for sexual development in Aspergillus nidulans.

Lee Dong W DW Freitag Michael M Selker Eric U EU Aramayo Rodolfo R

PloS one 20080625 6

<h4>Background</h4>The genome defense processes RIP (repeat-induced point mutation) in the filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa, and MIP (methylation induced premeiotically) in the fungus Ascobolus immersus depend on proteins with DNA methyltransferase (DMT) domains. Nevertheless, these proteins, RID and Masc1, respectively, have not been demonstrated to have DMT activity. We discovered a close homologue in Aspergillus nidulans, a fungus thought to have no methylation and no genome defense syste ...[more]

PMID: 18575630

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Project description:The serum- and glucocorticoid-regulated protein kinase (SGK) is an AGC kinase involved in signal cascades regulated by glucocorticoid hormones and serum in mammals. The Saccharomyces cerevisiae ypk1 and ypk2 genes were identified as SGK homologues and Ypk1 was shown to regulate the balance of sphingolipids between the inner and outer plasma membrane. This investigation characterized the Aspergillus nidulans YPK1 homologue, YpkA, representing the first filamentous fungal YPK1 homologue. Two conditional mutant strains were constructed by replacing the endogenous ypk1 promoter with two different regulatable promoters, alcA (from the alcohol dehydrogenase gene) and niiA (from the nitrate reductase gene). Both constructs confirmed that ypkA was an essential gene in A. nidulans. Repression of ypkA caused decreased radial growth, a delay in conidial germination, deficient polar axis establishment, intense branching during late stages of growth, a lack of asexual spores, and a terminal phenotype. Membrane lipid polarization, endocytosis, eisosomes and vacuolar distribution were also affected by ypkA repression, suggesting that YpkA plays a role in hyphal morphogenesis via coordinating the delivery of cell membrane and wall constituents to the hyphal apex. The A. nidulans Pkh1 homologue pkhA was also shown to be an essential gene, and preliminary genetic analysis suggested that the ypkA gene is not directly downstream of pkhA or epistatic to pkhA, rather, ypkA and pkhA are genetically independent or in parallel. BarA is a homologue of the yeast Lag1 acyl-CoA-dependent ceramide synthase, which catalyzes the condensation of phytosphingosine with a fatty acyl-CoA to form phytoceramide. When barA was absent, ypkA repression was lethal to the cell. Therefore, there appears to be a genetic interaction between ypkA, barA, and the sphingolipid synthesis. Transcriptional profiling of ypkA overexpression and down-regulation revealed several putative YpkA targets associated with the observed phenotypes.

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A cytosine methyltransferase homologue is essential for sexual development in Aspergillus nidulans.

Publications

A cytosine methyltransferase homologue is essential for sexual development in Aspergillus nidulans.

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