Mi-Hye Park, Hyoun-Young Kim, Jong Hwa Kim and Kap-Hoon Han*
Department of Pharmaceutical Engineering, Woosuk University, Wanju, 565-701, Republic of Korea
Correspondence to khhan@woosuk.ac.kr
Korean Journal of Mycology (Kor J Mycol) December 31, 2010, 38(2):160-166.
https://doi.org/10.4489/KJM.2010.38.2.160
(Received December 13, 2010. Accepted December 21, 2010)
Published: December 31, 2010.
© The Korean Society of Mycology
A homothallic filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans has been used as the a model organism for studying growth and development for eukaryotic system. Various studies about specific transcription factors have been performed for elucidating the molecular mechanisms of growth, asexual and sexual developmental processes. Among them, the fkhE gene (AN2025.3) is located in chromosome VII and contains an ORF encoding 718 amino acid polypeptide intervening with two short introns. The cDNA sequencing revealed that at least four types of alternative splicing events were occurred when the fkhE gene was transcribed. The putative FkhE polypeptide contains a conserved forkhead domain and a bipartite nuclear localization signal at it's N-terminus and C-terminus, respectively. Deletion of fkhE resulted in impaired conidiophore formation in a solid medium. However, the sexual developmental process or cleistothecia formation was normal. Furthermore, fkhE deletion mutant produced conidiophores and conidia under the submerged culture, indicating that the fkhE gene is involved in asexual developmental process similar to the fkhF gene.
Asexual development, Aspergillus nidulans, Forkhead, Transcription factor