Moleculer mechanism of hyphal development

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26292046
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Applied microbiology
• Research Institution: National Institute of Genetics
• Principal Investigator: NIKI Hironori 国立遺伝学研究所, 系統生物研究センター, 教授 (70208122)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 分裂酵母 / 糸状菌 / 菌糸 / 二形性 / 光応答 / 温度応答 / シグナル伝達

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Dimorphic yeasts transform into filamentous cells or hyphae in response to environmental cues. The Ras1-MAPK pathway is a major signal transduction pathway for hyphal transition in C. albicans. To examine how hyphal transition is induced by environmental stress-triggered signal transduction, we studied the hyphal transition of deletion mutants of MAPK pathways in Sz. japonicus. We found that the MAPK pathways are not involved in hyphal induction, although the mating response is dependent on these pathways. However, only Ras1 deletion caused a severe defect in hyphal development via both DNA damage and environmental stressors. In fact, genes on the Cdc42 branch of the Ras1 (Ras1-Cdc42) pathway, efc25Sj, scd1Sj and scd2Sj, are required for hyphal development. Cell morphology analysis indicated that the apical growth of hyphal cells was inhibited in Ras1-Cdc42-pathway deletion mutants. Thus, the control of cell polarity by the Ras1-Cdc42 pathway is crucial for hyphal development.

Free Research Field

分子生物学