The Role of PkcA in Septum Formation in Aspergillus nidulans

PkcA is a major protein within Aspergillus nidulans and is important in formation of the cell wall and septum. The ability to compromise PkcA function in a fungal cell will help to manipulate the growth of fungal cells. In order to accomplish this, the order of events surrounding PkcA use in fungal cells should be determined. Further understanding of the role of PkcA in cell wall metabolism can also be gained by regulating PkcA expression and determining which domains of PkcA are important for proper localization and function. To this end, we replaced the PkcA promoter with the inducible AlcA promoter and expressed domain deleted PkcA‐GFP chimeras. PCR and gel electrophoresis was used to ensure correct insertion of the AlcA promoter and GFP. We successfully tagged PkcA with GFP and accomplished AlcA promoter replacements. Results presented here were obtained by observing the fungal strains through fluorescence microscopy. We will continue to work in creating expressed domain deleted‐PkcA‐GFP chimeras and to further determine the order of events surrounding PkcA use in fungal cells.