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Conidiation rhythm and light entrainment in superoxide dismutase mutant in Neurospora crassa

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Abstract

Conidial formation in the filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa is regulated by nutritional conditions, light, and the circadian clock. We found that a sod-1 mutant, with a defective superoxide dismutase catalyzing the conversion of superoxide to hydrogen peroxide, had a slightly shorter period length than the wild type and clear conidial banding similar to a mutant of band (bd). However, unlike the bd mutant, the sod-1 mutant could sustain conidial banding with light pulses on a nutrient-rich medium, which involved an enhancement of the light-induced transcription of frequency (frq). sod-1 was hypersensitive to entrainment of the conidiation rhythm by light in race tubes. Furthermore, a frq 10 ; sod-1 double mutant showed conidiation rhythm in darkness and could be synchronized to light/dark cycles by the masking effect of light. These genetic analyses suggested that intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) act on circadian conidiation via multiple circadian clocks and output pathways.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to W. R. Briggs and C. Yanofsky for critical reading and criticism of the manuscript. This work was supported by a Grant-in-aid from the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science, Mishima Kaiun Memorial Foundation, Yamada Science Foundation, Yokohama Academic Foundation and co-operative research support from Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kihara Institute for Biological Research, Graduate School of Integrated Science, Yokohama City University, 641-12 Maioka-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama, 244-0813, Japan

    Yusuke Yoshida, Takashi Maeda, Bumkyu Lee & Kohji Hasunuma

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  1. Yusuke Yoshida
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  2. Takashi Maeda
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  3. Bumkyu Lee
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  4. Kohji Hasunuma
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Correspondence to Kohji Hasunuma.

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Communicated by J. Perez-Martin.

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Yoshida, Y., Maeda, T., Lee, B. et al. Conidiation rhythm and light entrainment in superoxide dismutase mutant in Neurospora crassa . Mol Genet Genomics 279, 193–202 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00438-007-0308-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00438-007-0308-z

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