An unlinked mutation affecting control of purine metabolism in a revertant of an ad-7 auxotroph of Neurospora crassa lacking the phosphoribosylpyrophosphate amidotransferase

Abstract

Prototrophic revertants of an ad-7 mutant recover phosphoribosylpyrophosphate amidotransferase activity, indicating ad-7 is the structural gene for the first enzyme in the de novo biosynthesis of purine nucleotides. Some revertants excrete purines and cross-feed ad-3A conidia which have a lesion in the de novo pathway. A mutant apu, not linked to ad-7 or ad-8, is responsible for the ability to excrete purines. This mutation is not allelic to a mutant in the aza-1 locus which is also known to excrete purines.