Asexual cephalosporin C producer Acremonium chrysogenum carries a functional mating type locus.

ABSTRACT: Acremonium chrysogenum, the fungal producer of the pharmaceutically relevant beta-lactam antibiotic cephalosporin C, is classified as asexual because no direct observation of mating or meiosis has yet been reported. To assess the potential of A. chrysogenum for sexual reproduction, we screened an expressed sequence tag library from A. chrysogenum for the expression of mating type (MAT) genes, which are the key regulators of sexual reproduction. We identified two putative mating type genes that are homologues of the alpha-box domain gene, MAT1-1-1 and MAT1-1-2, encoding an HPG domain protein defined by the presence of the three invariant amino acids histidine, proline, and glycine. In addition, cDNAs encoding a putative pheromone receptor and pheromone-processing enzymes, as well as compone

SUBMITTER: Poggeler S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2565971 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature