The fungal acl1 and acl2 genes encode two polypeptides with homology to the N- and C-terminal parts of the animal ATP citrate lyase polypeptide

ATP citrate lyase (ACL) catalyzes the formation of cytosolic acetyl-CoA, wh ich is mainly used for the biosynthesis of fatty acids and sterols. In this paper, we show for the first time that in filamentous fungi two different subunits of ACL are encoded by two separate genes. This is in contrast to a nimals where ACL is encoded by a single gene. Data are presented on acl gen es from the filamentous fungi Sordaria macrospora and Gibberella pulicaris. In S. macrospora, both genes, acl1 and acl2, are clustered within a region of 10 kb and are divergently transcribed.