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CLONING AND CHARACTERIZATION OF A cDNA ENCODING A SEXUAL CELL DIVISION‐INDUCING PHEROMONE FROM A UNICELLULAR GREEN ALGA CLOSTERIUM EHRENBERGII (CHLOROPHYTA)
Author(s) -
Fukumoto Ryohei,
Fujii Tadashi,
Sekimoto Hiroyuki
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of phycology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.85
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1529-8817
pISSN - 0022-3646
DOI - 10.1046/j.1529-8817.2003.03004.x
Subject(s) - biology , complementary dna , gene , mating type , microbiology and biotechnology , biochemistry
A full‐length cDNA encoding a sexual cell division‐ inducing pheromone (SCD‐IP) was isolated from a heterothallic green alga, Closterium ehrenbergii Menegh. ex Ralfs, using the rapid amplification of cDNA ends‐PCR method. The cDNA was 907 bp in length and coded for a protein of 209 amino acids with a deduced molecular mass of M r 23,186. The predicted protein had a possible glycosylation site and a hydrophobic signal peptide for extracellular secretion. Transcripts of the SCD‐IP gene were detected only in mating type minus (mt − ) cells and remarkably increased when mt − cells were cocultured with mating type plus (mt + ) cells. By contrast, the gene for SCD‐IP was detected in both mating type cells as multicopy genes by Southern blot analysis. Continuous dark conditions and supplementation of a nitrogen source to the culture medium suppressed SCD‐IP expression. The deduced amino acid sequences encoded by genes for SCD‐IP and protoplast‐release‐inducing protein (PR‐IP) Inducer, a sex pheromone isolated from another Closterium species, appeared to share significant homology, suggesting that these sex pheromones were diversified from a single ancestral Closterium pheromone.