Role of a mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway during conidial germination and hyphal fusion in Neurospora crassa.

ABSTRACT: Mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase signaling pathways are ubiquitous and evolutionarily conserved in eukaryotic organisms. MAP kinase pathways are composed of a MAP kinase, a MAP kinase kinase, and a MAP kinase kinase kinase; activation is regulated by sequential phosphorylation. Components of three MAP kinase pathways have been identified by genome sequence analysis in the filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa. One of the predicted MAP kinases in N. crassa, MAK-2, shows similarity to Fus3p and Kss1p of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which are involved in sexual reproduction and filamentation, respectively. In this study, we show that an N. crassa mutant disrupted in mak-2 exhibits a pleiotropic phenotype: derepressed conidiation, shortened aerial hyphae, lack of vegetative hyphal fusion, fe

SUBMITTER: Pandey A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC387641 | biostudies-literature | 2004 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature