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doi:10.1534/genetics.105.047381
A more recent version of this article appeared on March 1, 2006.
REGULAR RESEARCH PAPERS |
Pheromones and pheromone receptors are required for proper sexual development in the homothallic ascomycete Sordaria macrospora
Severine Mayrhofer 1, Jan M Weber 1 and Stefanie Pöggeler 1*
1 Ruhr-University Bochum
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: stefanie.poeggeler{at}rub.de.
Submitted on July 22, 2005
Revised on September 12, 2005
Accepted on 29 December 2005
The homothallic, filamentous ascomycete Sordaria macrospora is self-fertile and produces sexual fruiting bodies (perithecia) without a mating partner. Even so S. macrospora transcriptionally expresses two pheromone-precursor genes (ppg1 and ppg2) and two pheromone-receptor genes (pre1 and pre2). The proteins encoded by these genes are similar to 
-factor-like and a-factor-like pheromones and to G-protein-coupled pheromone receptors of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. It has been suggested that in S. macrospora, PPG1/PRE2 and PPG2/PRE1 form two cognate pheromone/receptor-pairs. In order to investigate their function, we deleted (
) pheromone-precursor genes (ppg1, ppg2) and receptor genes (pre1, pre2) and generated single- as well as double-knockout strains. No effect on vegetative growth, fruiting-body and ascospore development was seen in the single pheromone-mutant and receptor-mutant strains, respectively. However, double-knockout strains lacking any compatible pheromone/receptor-pair (pre2/ppg2, pre1/ppg1) and the double-pheromone mutant (ppg1/ppg2) displayed a drastically reduced number of perithecia and sexual spores, whereas deletion of both receptor genes (pre1/pre2) completely eliminated fruiting-body and ascospore formation. The results suggest that pheromones and pheromone receptors are required for optimal sexual reproduction of the homothallic S. macrospora.
Key Words: G-protein coupled receptors, Sordaria macrospora, fruiting body, pheromones, sexual development
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