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Genes expressed during conidiation in Neurospora crassa: characterization of con-8.

ABSTRACT: The filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa, by a series of defined changes, differentiates from a mycelium composed of branching hyphae to form dormant spores, called conidia. Several genes of unknown function (con genes) that are preferentially expressed during this period have been cloned. Transcription of these genes has been examined in conidiation-defective mutants, and the results obtained revealed that con-6, con-8, con-10, con-11 and con-13 are most likely to play a unique role during conidiation, con-8 is expressed early during conidial differentiation. Genomic and cDNA sequence analyses with con-8 clones identified one open reading frame, interrupted by two introns, which encodes a weakly acidic 18.4 kDa polypeptide containing 176 amino acid residues, con-8 is unusual in that it is transcribed as two mRNA species, 1.0 and 1.25 kb in length. S1 nuclease mapping and primer extension analyses identify one major initiation site, one major polyadenylation site, and demonstrated the existence of heterogeneity at the messenger's 5' and 3' ends.

SUBMITTER: Roberts AN

PROVIDER: S-EPMC331545 | biostudies-other | 1989 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Genes expressed during conidiation in Neurospora crassa: characterization of con-8.

Roberts A N AN Yanofsky C C

Nucleic acids research 19890101 1

The filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa, by a series of defined changes, differentiates from a mycelium composed of branching hyphae to form dormant spores, called conidia. Several genes of unknown function (con genes) that are preferentially expressed during this period have been cloned. Transcription of these genes has been examined in conidiation-defective mutants, and the results obtained revealed that con-6, con-8, con-10, con-11 and con-13 are most likely to play a unique role during coni ...[more]

PMID: 2521382

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Project description:Secondary metabolite clusters (SMCs) encode the machinery for fungal toxin production. However, understanding their function and analyzing their products requires investigation of the developmental and environmental conditions in which they are expressed. Gene expression is often restricted to specific and unexamined stages of the life cycle. Therefore, we applied comparative genomics analyses to identify SMCs in Neurospora crassa and analyzed extensive transcriptomic data spanning nine independent experiments from diverse developmental and environmental conditions to reveal their life cycle-specific gene expression patterns. We reported 20 SMCs comprising 177 genes-a manageable set for investigation of the roles of SMCs across the life cycle of the fungal model N. crassa-as well as gene sets coordinately expressed in 18 predicted SMCs during asexual and sexual growth under three nutritional and two temperature conditions. Divergent activity of SMCs between asexual and sexual development was reported. Of 126 SMC genes that we examined for knockout phenotypes, al-2 and al-3 exhibited phenotypes in asexual growth and conidiation, whereas os-5, poi-2, and pmd-1 exhibited phenotypes in sexual development. SMCs with annotated function in mating and crossing were actively regulated during the switch between asexual and sexual growth. Our discoveries call for attention to roles that SMCs may play in the regulatory switches controlling mode of development, as well as the ecological associations of those developmental stages that may influence expression of SMCs. IMPORTANCE Secondary metabolites (SMs) are low-molecular-weight compounds that often mediate interactions between fungi and their environments. Fungi enriched with SMs are of significant research interest to agriculture and medicine, especially from the aspects of pathogen ecology and environmental epidemiology. However, SM clusters (SMCs) that have been predicted by comparative genomics alone have typically been poorly defined and insufficiently functionally annotated. Therefore, we have investigated coordinate expression in SMCs in the model system N. crassa, and our results suggest that SMCs respond to environmental signals and to stress that are associated with development. This study examined SMC regulation at the level of RNA to integrate observations and knowledge of these genes in various growth and development conditions, supporting combining comparative genomics and inclusive transcriptomics to improve computational annotation of SMCs. Our findings call for detailed study of the function of SMCs during the asexual-sexual switch, a key, often-overlooked developmental stage.

Dataset Information

Genes expressed during conidiation in Neurospora crassa: characterization of con-8.

Publications

Genes expressed during conidiation in Neurospora crassa: characterization of con-8.

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