REGULATION OF PHOSPHATE METABOLISM IN NEUROSPORA CRASSA : IDENTIFICATION OF THE STRUCTURAL GENE FOR REPRESSIBLE ALKALINE PHOSPHATASE

John F. Lehman ¹ and Robert L. Metzenberg ¹

¹ Department of Physiological Chemistry, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706

Five additional mutants of Neurospora crassa have been isolated that lack the repressible alkaline phosphatase. The mutations in these strains map at a previously assigned locus on Linkage Group V designated pho-2 (Gleason and Metzenberg 1974). The five new mutants, as well as three previously isolated by Gleason and Metzenberg (1974), were examined for the presence of cross-reacting material to antibody prepared against purified wild-type enzyme. Two of the mutants produced high levels of cross-reacting material, thus providing evidence that the pho-2 locus includes the structural gene for the repressible alkaline phosphatase. Two revertants were obtained from one of the mutants that contained cross-reacting material. Neither revertant produced an enzyme that could be distinguished physicochemically from that of wild type. A method for measuring very low levels of repressible alkaline phosphatase in crude extracts is also described.