VIRAL REPRESSION OF FUNGAL PHEROMONE PRECURSOR GENE-EXPRESSION

Citation
L. Zhang et al., VIRAL REPRESSION OF FUNGAL PHEROMONE PRECURSOR GENE-EXPRESSION, Molecular and cellular biology, 18(2), 1998, pp. 953-959
Citations number
30
Categorie Soggetti
Biology,"Cell Biology
ISSN journal
02707306
Volume
18
Issue
2
Year of publication
1998
Pages
953 - 959
Database
ISI
SICI code
0270-7306(1998)18:2<953:VROFPP>2.0.ZU;2-A
Abstract
Biological control of chestnut blight caused by the filamentous ascomy cete Cryphonectria parasitica can be achieved with a virus that infect s this fungus, This hypovirus causes a perturbation pf fungal developm ent that results in low virulence (hypovirulence), poor asexual sporul ation, and female infertility without affecting fungal growth in cultu re, At the molecular level, the virus is known to affect the transcrip tion of a number of fungal genes, Two of these genes, Vir1 and Vir2, p roduce abundant transcripts in noninfected strains of the fungus, but the transcripts are not detectable in virus-infected strains, We repor t here that these two genes encode the pheromone precursors of the Mat -2 mating type of the fungus; consequently, these genes have been rena med Mf2/1 and Mf2/2, To determine if the virus affects the mating syst ems of both mating types of this fungus, the pheromone precursor gene; Mf1/1, of a Mat-1 strain was cloned and likewise was found to be repr essed in virus-infected strains, The suppression of transcription of t he pheromone precursor genes of this fungus could be the cause of the mating defect of infected strains of the fungus, Although published re ports suggest that a G alpha(i) subunit may be involved in this regula tion, our results do not support this hypothesis, The prepropheromone encoded by Mf1/1 is structurally similar to that of the prepro-p-facto r of Schizosaccharomyces pombe, This is the first description of the c omplete set of pheromone precursor genes encoded by a filamentous asco mycete.