Open AccessNeurospora crassa 1,3-α-glucan synthase, AGS-1, is required for cell wall biosynthesis during macroconidia development
Author(s) -
Ci Fu,
Asuma Tanaka,
Stephen J. Free
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.019
H-Index - 179
eISSN - 1465-2080
pISSN - 1350-0872
DOI - 10.1099/mic.0.080002-0
Subject(s) - conidium , neurospora crassa , hypha , cell wall , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , glucan , neurospora , biochemistry , gene , botany , mutant
The Neurospora crassa genome encodes two 1,3-α-glucan synthases. One of these 1,3-α-glucan synthase genes, ags-1 , was shown to be required for the synthesis of 1,3-α-glucan in the aerial hyphae and macroconidia cell walls. 1,3-α-Glucan was found in the conidia cell wall, but was absent from the vegetative hyphae cell wall. Deletion of ags-1 affected conidial development. Δ ags-1 produced only 5 % as many conidia as the WT and most of the conidia produced by Δ ags-1 were not viable. The ags-1 upstream regulatory elements were shown to direct cell-type-specific expression of red fluorescent protein in conidia and aerial hyphae. A haemagglutinin-tagged AGS-1 was found to be expressed in aerial hyphae and conidia. The research showed that 1,3-α-glucan is an aerial hyphae and conidia cell wall component, and is required for normal conidial differentiation.