Cloning of the mating type loci from <i>Pyrenopeziza brassicae</i> reveals the presence of a novel mating type gene within a discomycete MAT 1‐2 locus encoding a putative metallothionein‐like protein

Singh, Gurjeet; Ashby, Alison M.

doi:10.1046/j.1365-2958.1999.01115.x

Cited by 19 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…The second locus encodes pheromone and pheromone receptor systems and can extend up to 20 kb via gene duplications. Only a few other fungal matingtype loci have been found to contain genes lacking an obvious function in mating (33,54,64). The mating-type locus of C. neoformans is the largest single-copy MAT locus known, and the locus contains a striking number of genes, including ones that function in mating and others with no predicted role in sexual differentiation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mating-Type Locus of Cryptococcus neoformans : a Step in the Evolution of Sex Chromosomes

et al. 2002

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The sexual development and virulence of the fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans is controlled by a bipolar mating system determined by a single locus that exists in two alleles, ␣ and a. The ␣ and a mating-type alleles from two divergent varieties were cloned and sequenced. The C. neoformans mating-type locus is unique, spans >100 kb, and contains more than 20 genes. MAT-encoded products include homologs of regulators of sexual development in other fungi, pheromone and pheromone receptors, divergent components of a MAP kinase cascade, and other proteins with no obvious function in mating. The ␣ and a alleles of the mating-type locus have extensively rearranged during evolution and strain divergence but are stable during genetic crosses and in the population. The C. neoformans mating-type locus is strikingly different from the other known fungal mating-type loci, sharing features with the self-incompatibility systems and sex chromosomes of algae, plants, and animals. Our study establishes a new paradigm for mating-type loci in fungi with implications for the evolution of cell identity and self/nonself recognition.Self/nonself recognition events underlie the function of the major histocompatibility locus in defense against infection and organ transplant rejection, the self-incompatibility systems that prevent inbreeding in plants, and the production of offspring by sexual reproduction. During sexual reproduction, specialized genomic regions promote self/nonself interactions. Sexdetermining regions include the mating-type loci in fungi and the sex chromosomes in plants and animals. Dimorphic sex chromosome systems independently evolved in animals, mosses, and dioecious plants. A related but distinct sexual incompatibility system is found in many lower eukaryotes, including algae, protozoans, monoecious plants, and fungi. In these organisms, multiallelic mating-type (MAT) loci monitor cell interactions for sexual compatibility, and if inbreeding is detected, mating is aborted (17,18,50,56).A common theme of sex determinants is the need to be transmitted as a single unit, and recombination within sexdetermining regions is suppressed to avoid generating selffertile or sterile offspring. Several mechanisms operate to suppress recombination. In the fungal MAT loci, extensive sequence divergence prevents recombination between different alleles. In the case of sex chromosomes, both sequence divergence and chromosomal rearrangements suppress recombination. These rearrangements affect nearly the entire sex chromosome in humans or mice, whereas in lower vertebrates and certain dipterous insects, only a limited region of the sex chromosomes is rearranged. These findings suggest that the dimorphic sex chromosomes evolved via accumulation of chromosomal aberrations.Fungal mating-type loci serve as paradigms for understanding gene regulation during sexual development and the determination of cell fate and identity (7,16,32,34,37,40,54). Sexual development of ascomycetous fungi is commonly controlled by a bipolar mating syste...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mating-Type Locus of Cryptococcus neoformans : a Step in the Evolution of Sex Chromosomes

et al. 2002

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“…In contrast, the C. parasitica polypyrimidine sequences are in the MAT flanking region. In a discomycete, Pyrenopeziza brassicae, a 95-bp sequence containing a polypyrimidine (T/C) interrupted by a 9-bp poly(A) tract, was found in the right flanking region of only the MAT1-1 idiomorph (Singh and Ashby, 1998) and it was speculated that the expression of MAT1-1 might be regulated by the formation of a stem-loop secondary structure of these polypyrimidines and polypurines (Singh and Ashby, 1998). In the oliC gene of Aspergillus nidulans, a polypyrimidine tract was found upstream of the site of initiation of transcription (Ward and Turner, 1986).…”

Section: Tablementioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of Mating-Type Genes in the Chestnut Blight Fungus, Cryphonectria parasitica

McGuire

Marra

Turgeon

et al. 2001

Fungal Genetics and Biology

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“…The second one, Crs5, is regulated by Cu, Zn, and oxidative stress (14,41). An MT has been identified for Agaricus bisporus (37), Gigaspora margarita (29), Neurospora crassa (38), Pyrenopeziza brassicae (44), Podospora anserina (2), and P. involutus (6). Noticeably, a Cu binding MT was purified from the ectomycorrhizal fungus Laccaria bicolor (19).…”

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confidence: 99%

Different Patterns of Regulation for the Copper and Cadmium Metallothioneins of the Ectomycorrhizal Fungus Hebeloma cylindrosporum

Ramesh

Podila

Marmeisse

et al. 2009

Appl Environ Microbiol

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Metallothioneins (MTs) are small cysteine-rich peptides involved in metal homeostasis and detoxification. We have characterized two MT genes, HcMT1 and HcMT2, from the ectomycorrhizal fungus Hebeloma cylindrosporum in this study. Expression of HcMT1 and HcMT2 in H. cylindrosporum under metal stress conditions was studied by competitive reverse transcription-PCR analysis. The full-length cDNAs were used to perform functional complementation in mutant strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. As revealed by heterologous complementation assays in yeast, HcMT1 and HcMT2 each encode a functional polypeptide capable of conferring increased tolerance against Cd and Cu, respectively. The expression levels of HcMT1 were observed to be at their maximum at 24 h, and they increased as a function of Cu concentration. HcMT2 was also induced by Cu, but the expression levels were lower than those for HcMT1. The mRNA accumulation of HcMT1 was not influenced by Cd, whereas Cd induced the transcription of HcMT2. Zn, Pb, and Ni did not affect the transcription of HcMT1 or of HcMT2. Southern blot analysis revealed that both of these genes are present as a single copy in H. cylindrosporum. While the promoters of both HcMT1 and HcMT2 contained the standard stress response elements implicated in the metal response, the numbers and varieties of potential regulatory elements were different in these promoters. These results show that ectomycorrhizal fungi encode different MTs and that each of them has a particular pattern of expression, suggesting that they play critical specific roles in improving the survival and growth of ectomycorrhizal trees in ecosystems contaminated by heavy metals.

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Cloning of the mating type loci from Pyrenopeziza brassicae reveals the presence of a novel mating type gene within a discomycete MAT 1‐2 locus encoding a putative metallothionein‐like protein

Cited by 19 publications

References 28 publications

Mating-Type Locus of Cryptococcus neoformans : a Step in the Evolution of Sex Chromosomes

Mating-Type Locus of Cryptococcus neoformans : a Step in the Evolution of Sex Chromosomes

Analysis of Mating-Type Genes in the Chestnut Blight Fungus, Cryphonectria parasitica

Different Patterns of Regulation for the Copper and Cadmium Metallothioneins of the Ectomycorrhizal Fungus Hebeloma cylindrosporum

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