Abstract.
Osmotically sensitive mutants of Neurospora crassa are unable to grow on medium supplemented with 4% NaCl, have altered morphologies and cell-wall compositions, and are resistant to dicarboximide fungicides. Osmotic-1 (os-1) mutants have a unique characteristic of forming protoplasts that grow and divide in specialized liquid medium, suggesting that the os-1 + gene product is important for cell-wall assembly. A cosmid containing the os-1 + locus of N. crassa, isolated from a genomic cosmid library by chromosomal walk from a closely linked gene, was used to subclone the os-1 + gene by functional complementation of an os-1 mutant. Analysis of the sequence of complementing DNA predicts that os-1 + encodes a predicted protein similar to sensor-histidine kinases of bacteria and a yeast osmosensor-histidine kinase. Importantly, the predicted os-1 + protein is identical to the N. crassa nik-1 predicted protein that was identified by using polymerase chain reaction primers directed against histidine kinase consensus DNA sequences. Our results indicate that nik-1 and os-1 encode the same osmosensing histidine kinase that plays an important role in the regulation of cell-wall assembly and, probably, other cell responses to changes in external osmolarity.
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Received: 12 September 1996 / Accepted: 12 November 1996
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Schumacher, M., Enderlin, C. & Selitrennikoff, C. The Osmotic-1 Locus of Neurospora crassa Encodes a Putative Histidine Kinase Similar to Osmosensors of Bacteria and Yeast . Curr Microbiol 34, 340–347 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/s002849900193
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s002849900193