Abstract
The A-pathway of development in the basidiomycete fungusSchizophyllum commune may be activated by either of two mating-type loci,Aξ andAβ Aα consists of two multiallelic genes,Y andZ. Y contains a putative homeodomain; Z contains a homeodomain-related region. Non- self combinations of Y and Z form heteromultimers which are thought to be transcription factors of developmental genes. To more completely understand A-regulated development it is necessary to address the issue of functional redundancy, i.e., how do two different mating loci,Aα andAβ, both manage to regulate the same pathway. Here we report the structure of a gene withAβ6 activity. This gene, denotedAβV6, encodes a deduced polypeptide of 640 amino-acids with a homeodomain motif. V6 also contains a 20-amino acid sequence that is conserved in Aα Y1, Y3 and Y4. Except for the homeodomain and the conserved sequence, the deduced V6 polypeptide shows no significant identity to AαY, AαZ, or other known proteins. The presence of a homeodomain suggests that V, like Y and Z, may be a regulatory protein for genes in the A-pathway. Thus whileAα andAβ encode different proteins, the general mechanism by which Aα and Aβ components signal A-regulated development may be similar.
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Communicated by R. Kahmann
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Shen, GP., Park, DC., Ullrich, R.C. et al. Cloning and characterization of aSchizophyllum gene withAβ6 mating-type activity. Curr Genet 29, 136–142 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02221577
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02221577