Isolation and Characterization of Two Chitin Synthase Genes ofRhizopus oligosporus

Multiple genes for chitin synthase in the zygomycete fungus Phycomyces blakesleeanus.

“…The differential expression of PbCHS genes in liquid cultures even within a class indicates that distinct regulatory mechanisms might operate on individual genes. Transcripts of 3.2-kb in class II and 4.7-kb in class IV observed in our Northern blots could be consistent with a single polypeptide containing the CHS function, as judged by comparison to full-length sequence data available in literature (Motoyama et al, 1994;Specht et al, 1996;Sudoh et al, 1993). However some explanation may be needed for the 8.2-kb mRNA in class IV.…”

“…Four of them belonged to class II. The multiplicity of class II-CHS is known in other zygomycete fungi, for example, Rhizopus oligosporus (Motoyama et al, 1994) and Entomophaga aulicae (Thomsen and Beauvais, 1995). The other two were positioned, in particular, close to the CHS1 of S. cerevisiae by clustal alignment.…”

“…A plausible explanation is that gene duplications have occurred in the Phycomyces genome, and this process may still be occurring. Evidence has been presented for the multiplicity or possible duplication of class II genes in Zygomycetes (Motoyama et al, 1994;Thomsen and Beauvais, 1995), suggesting that class II-CHS in these fungi is important for their complex development. The differential expression of PbCHS genes in liquid cultures even within a class indicates that distinct regulatory mechanisms might operate on individual genes.…”

Repression of chsB expression reveals the functional importance of class IV chitin synthase gene chsD in hyphal growth and conidiation of Aspergillus nidulans The GenBank accession number for the the new version of the chsD nucleotide sequence is D83246.

“…Transcriptional regulation of chitin synthase genes has been shown in other fungi Pammer et al, 1992 ;Sudoh et al, 1993 ;Choi et al, 1994 ;Motoyama et al, 1994b ;Xoconostle-Ca! zares et al, 1996Munro et al, 1998 ;Wang & Szaniszlo, 2000), and seems to be one of the regulatory mechanisms for chitin synthesis.…”

Cloning and Characterization of aLentinula edodesClass II Chitin Synthase Gene,LeChs2

“…Sequence comparison showed that the deduced amino acid sequence of LeChs2 had 81.0%, 57.8%, 53.2%, 52.0%, 50.4%, and 48.5% identity with those from the chitin synthase genes of Laccaria bicolor (DDBJ accession B0CRP4 LACBS), Cryptococcus neoformans (DDBJ accession Q5KDW9 CRYNE), Ustilago maydis UmChs2 (DDBJ accession CHS2 USTMA), 11) Rhizopus oligosporus CHS2, 12) Neurospora crassa chs2, 9) and y To whom correspondence should be addressed. …”