Pheromones and Pheromone Receptors Are Required for Proper Sexual Development in the Homothallic Ascomycete <i>Sordaria macrospora</i>

Mayrhofer, Severine; Weber, Jan; Pöggeler, Stefanie

doi:10.1534/genetics.105.047381

Cited by 80 publications

(94 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Whereas the Dgsa2Dpre1 and Dgsa2Dpre2 double mutants are fertile, the Dgsa1Dpre1 and Dgsa1Dpre2 mutants are almost totally blocked in sexual development, producing a strongly reduced number of perithecia compared with the single mutants and the wild-type strain. This phenotype resembles that of the recently described Dpre1 Dppg1 and Dpre2Dppg2 double mutants (Mayrhofer et al 2006). The drastically reduced fertility of the Dgsa1Dpre mutants and the wild-type-like fruiting body formation of Dgsa2Dpre mutants point to the crucial role of the GSA1 subunit in transducing the signals from the PRE pheromone receptors in S. macrospora.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

“…Functional characterization of the pre genes has shown that single knockout strains have a wild-type-like fruiting body development. However, deletion of both receptor genes completely eliminates fruiting body formation (Mayrhofer et al 2006).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…S. macrospora is homothallic and both receptor genes are coexpressed within a single cell (Pö ggeler and Kü ck 2001). The knockout of a single receptor in S. macrospora has no obvious effect on fruiting body development and indicates that one receptor can compensate for the loss of the other receptor (Mayrhofer et al 2006). This is supported by a growing body of evidence suggesting that G protein-coupled receptors exist as homo-or heterooligomers (Bulenger et al 2005;Overton et al 2005).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…To date, several S. macrospora pro mutants that develop protoperithecia but no perithecia have been generated and characterized, thereby revealing essential components of fruiting body development Nowrousian et al 1999Nowrousian et al , 2007aPö ggeler and Kü ck 2004;Kü ck 2005;Engh et al 2007). In addition, despite the fact that S. macrospora completes the sexual cycle without a mating partner, two pheromone-precursor (ppg1 and ppg2) and two pheromonereceptor genes (pre1 and pre2) were shown to be involved in sexual development (Pö ggeler and Kü ck 2000; Mayrhofer and Pö ggeler 2005;Mayrhofer et al 2006;Pö ggeler et al 2006b). The two receptors show significant amino acid similarities to the pheromone receptors in S. cerevisiae (Pö ggeler and Kü ck 2001).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Three α-Subunits of Heterotrimeric G Proteins and an Adenylyl Cyclase Have Distinct Roles in Fruiting Body Development in the Homothallic Fungus Sordaria macrospora

et al. 2008

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Sordaria macrospora, a self-fertile filamentous ascomycete, carries genes encoding three different a-subunits of heterotrimeric G proteins (gsa, G protein Sordaria alpha subunit). We generated knockout strains for all three gsa genes (Dgsa1, Dgsa2, and Dgsa3) as well as all combinations of double mutants. Phenotypic analysis of single and double mutants showed that the genes for Ga-subunits have distinct roles in the sexual life cycle. While single mutants show some reduction of fertility, double mutants Dgsa1Dgsa2 and Dgsa1Dgsa3 are completely sterile. To test whether the pheromone receptors PRE1 and PRE2 mediate signaling via distinct Ga-subunits, two recently generated Dpre strains were crossed with all Dgsa strains. Analyses of the corresponding double mutants revealed that compared to GSA2, GSA1 is a more predominant regulator of a signal transduction cascade downstream of the pheromone receptors and that GSA3 is involved in another signaling pathway that also contributes to fruiting body development and fertility. We further isolated the gene encoding adenylyl cyclase (AC) (sac1) for construction of a knockout strain. Analyses of the three DgsaDsac1 double mutants and one Dgsa2Dgsa3Dsac1 triple mutant indicate that SAC1 acts downstream of GSA3, parallel to a GSA1-GSA2-mediated signaling pathway. In addition, the function of STE12 and PRO41, two presumptive signaling components, was investigated in diverse double mutants lacking those developmental genes in combination with the gsa genes. This analysis was further completed by expression studies of the ste12 and pro41 transcripts in wild-type and mutant strains. From the sum of all our data, we propose a model for how different Ga-subunits interact with pheromone receptors, adenylyl cyclase, and STE12 and thus cooperatively regulate sexual development in S. macrospora.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Three α-Subunits of Heterotrimeric G Proteins and an Adenylyl Cyclase Have Distinct Roles in Fruiting Body Development in the Homothallic Fungus Sordaria macrospora

et al. 2008

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“…Duplication of matA affects expression of the pheromone receptor gene gprA Pheromone receptor signaling during sexual development in A. nidulans and other homothallic fungi is essential to control recognition mechanisms between sexually compatible cells (Poggeler 2000;Seo et al 2004;Mayrhofer and Poggeler 2005;Mayrhofer et al 2006;Poggeler et al 2006a,b). Homologs of the budding yeast pheromone receptor genes gprA (a-factor receptor) and gprB (a-factor receptor) in homothallic A. nidulans have been previously reported (Seo et al 2004).…”

Section: Duplication Of the Mata Gene Suppresses Expression Of Mata mentioning

confidence: 99%

Novel Sexual-Cycle-Specific Gene Silencing in Aspergillus nidulans

Czaja¹,

Miller

2013

Genetics

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We report a novel sexual-cycle-specific gene-silencing system in the genetic model Aspergillus nidulans. Duplication of the mating type matA HMG gene in this haploid organism triggers Mat-induced silencing (MatIS) of both endogenous and transgenic matA genes, eliminates function of the encoded SRY structural ortholog, and results in formation of barren fruiting bodies. MatIS is spatiotemporally restricted to the prezygotic stage of the sexual cycle and does not interfere with vegetative growth, asexual reproduction, differentiation of early sexual tissues, or fruiting body development. MatIS is reversible upon deletion of the matA transgene. In contrast to other sex-specific silencing phenomena, MatIS silencing has nearly 100% efficiency and appears to be independent of homologous duplicated DNA segments. Remarkably, transgene-derived matA RNA might be sufficient to induce MatIS. A unique feature of MatIS is that RNA-mediated silencing is RNA interference/Argonaute-independent and is restricted to the nucleus having the duplicated gene. The silencing phenomenon is recessive and does not spread between nuclei within the common cytoplasm of a multinucleate heterokaryon. Gene silencing induced by matA gene duplication emerges as a specific feature associated with matA HMG regulation during sexual development.

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New approaches in bioprocess‐control: Consortium guidance by synthetic cell‐cell communication based on fungal pheromones

Hennig

Wenzel

Haas

et al. 2018

Engineering in Life Sciences

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Bioconversions in industrial processes are currently dominated by single‐strain approaches. With the growing complexity of tasks to be carried out, microbial consortia become increasingly advantageous and eventually may outperform single‐strain fermentations. Consortium approaches benefit from the combined metabolic capabilities of highly specialized strains and species, and the inherent division of labor reduces the metabolic burden for each strain while increasing product yields and reaction specificities. However, consortium‐based designs still suffer from a lack of available tools to control the behavior and performance of the individual subpopulations and of the entire consortium. Here, we propose to implement novel control elements for microbial consortia based on artificial cell–cell communication via fungal mating pheromones. Coupling to the desired output is mediated by pheromone‐responsive gene expression, thereby creating pheromone‐dependent communication channels between different subpopulations of the consortia. We highlight the benefits of artificial communication to specifically target individual subpopulations of microbial consortia and to control e.g. their metabolic profile or proliferation rate in a predefined and customized manner. Due to the steadily increasing knowledge of sexual cycles of industrially relevant fungi, a growing number of strains and species can be integrated into pheromone‐controlled sensor‐actor systems, exploiting their unique metabolic properties for microbial consortia approaches.

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Pheromones and Pheromone Receptors Are Required for Proper Sexual Development in the Homothallic Ascomycete Sordaria macrospora

Cited by 80 publications

References 38 publications

Three α-Subunits of Heterotrimeric G Proteins and an Adenylyl Cyclase Have Distinct Roles in Fruiting Body Development in the Homothallic Fungus Sordaria macrospora

Three α-Subunits of Heterotrimeric G Proteins and an Adenylyl Cyclase Have Distinct Roles in Fruiting Body Development in the Homothallic Fungus Sordaria macrospora

Novel Sexual-Cycle-Specific Gene Silencing in Aspergillus nidulans

New approaches in bioprocess‐control: Consortium guidance by synthetic cell‐cell communication based on fungal pheromones

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