Jr. Dutton et al., STUAP IS A SEQUENCE-SPECIFIC TRANSCRIPTION FACTOR THAT REGULATES DEVELOPMENTAL COMPLEXITY IN ASPERGILLUS-NIDULANS, EMBO journal, 16(18), 1997, pp. 5710-5721
The Aspergillus nidulans Stunted protein (StuAp) regulates multicellul
ar complexity during asexual reproduction by moderating the core devel
opmental program that directs differentiation of uninucleate, terminal
ly differentiated spores from multinucleate, vegetative hyphae, StuAp
is also required for ascosporogenesis and multicellular development du
ring sexual reproduction, StuAp is a member of a family of fungal tran
scription factors that regulate development or cell cycle progression,
Further, StuAp characterizes a sub-family possessing the conserved AP
SES domain, We demonstrate for the first time that the APSES domain is
a sequence-specific DNA-binding domain that can be modeled as a basic
helix-loop-helix (bHLH)-like structure, We have found that StuAp resp
onse elements (A/T CGCG T/A N A/C) are located upstream of both critic
al developmental regulatory genes and cell cycle genes in A,nidulans,
StuAp is shown to act as a transcriptional repressor in A.nidulans, bu
t as a weak activator in budding yeast, Our data suggest that the diff
erentiation of pseudohyphal-like sterigmatal cells during multicellula
r conidiophore development requires correct StuAp-regulated expression
of both developmental and cell cycle genes in A.nidulans, The budding
pattern of sterigmata may involve processes related to those controll
ing pseudohyphal growth in budding yeast.