| Title: | Isolation and characterization of the Cryptococcus neoformans MATa pheromone gene |
| Author(s): | McClelland CM; Fu J; Woodlee GL; Seymour TS; Wickes BL; |
| Address: | "Department of Microbiology, University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, Texas 78229-3900, USA" |
| DOI: | 10.1093/genetics/160.3.935 |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 0016-6731 (Print) 0016-6731 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Cryptococcus neoformans is a heterothallic basidiomycete with two mating types, MATa and MATalpha. The mating pathway of this fungus has a number of conserved genes, including a MATalpha-specific pheromone (MFalpha1). A modified differential display strategy was used to identify a gene encoding the MATa pheromone. The gene, designated MFa1, is 42 amino acids in length and contains a conserved farnesylation motif. MFa1 is present in three linked copies that span a 20-kb fragment of MATa-specific DNA and maps to the MAT-containing chromosome. Transformation studies showed that MFa1 induced filament formation only in MATalpha cells, demonstrating that MFa1 is functionally conserved. Sequence analysis of the predicted Mfa1 and Mfalpha1 proteins revealed that, in contrast to other fungi such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the C. neoformans pheromone genes are structurally and functionally conserved. However, unlike the MFalpha1 gene, which is found in MATalpha strains of both varieties of C. neoformans, MFa1 is specific for the neoformans variety of C. neoformans" |
| Keywords: | 3' Untranslated Regions Amino Acid Sequence Base Sequence Chromosome Mapping Cryptococcus neoformans/*genetics Fungal Proteins/*genetics Molecular Sequence Data Pheromones/*genetics; |
| Notes: | "MedlineMcClelland, Carol M Fu, Jianmin Woodlee, Gay L Seymour, Tara S Wickes, Brian L eng AI47087/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ P30 CA 54174/CA/NCI NIH HHS/ R29AI43522/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S. 2002/03/20 Genetics. 2002 Mar; 160(3):935-47. doi: 10.1093/genetics/160.3.935" |
