Heterotrimeric G proteins are critical regulators of growth and asexual and sexual development in the filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa. Three G␣ subunits (GNA-1, GNA-2, and GNA-3), one G subunit (GNB-1), and one G␥ subunit (GNG-1) have been functionally characterized, but genetic epistasis relationships between G and G␣ subunit genes have not been determined. Physical association between GNB-1 and FLAG-tagged GNG-1 has been previously demonstrated by coimmunoprecipitation, but knowledge of the G␣ binding partners for the G␥ dimer is currently lacking. In this study, the three N. crassa G␣ subunits are analyzed for genetic epistasis with gnb-1 and for physical interaction with the G␥ dimer. We created double mutants lacking one G␣ gene and gnb-1 and introduced constitutively active, GTPase-deficient alleles for each G␣ gene into the ⌬gnb-1 background. Genetic analysis revealed that gna-3 is epistatic to gnb-1 with regard to negative control of submerged conidiation. gnb-1 is epistatic to gna-2 and gna-3 for aerial hyphal height, while gnb-1 appears to act upstream of gna-1 and gna-2 during aerial conidiation. None of the activated G␣ alleles restored female fertility to ⌬gnb-1 mutants, and the gna-3 Q208L allele inhibited formation of female reproductive structures, consistent with a need for G␣ proteins to cycle through the inactive GDP-bound form for these processes. Coimmunoprecipitation experiments using extracts from the gng-1-FLAG strain demonstrated that the three G␣ proteins interact with the G␥ dimer. The finding that the G␥ dimer interacts with all three G␣ proteins is supported by epistasis between gnb-1 and gna-1, gna-2, and gna-3 for at least one function.
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