Ultrastructure of Aspergillus nidulans conidia and conidial lomasomes

A dually located multi-HMG-box protein of Aspergillus nidulans has a crucial role in conidial and ascospore germination

Seven HMG-box proteins of Aspergillus nidulans have been identified in the genomic databases. Three of these have the characteristics of non-specific DNA-binding proteins. One of these, AN1267 (HmbB), comprises one canonical HMG-box in its C-terminus and upstream of the canonical box two structurally related boxes, to be called Shadow-HMG-boxes. This protein defines, together with the Podospora anserina mtHMG1, a clade of proteins present in the Pezizomycotina, with orthologues in some of the Taphrinomycotina. HmbB localizes primarily to the mitochondria but occasionally in nuclei. The deletion of the cognate gene results in a number of pleiotropic effects, including those on hyphal morphology, sensitivity to oxidative stress, absence of sterigmatocystin production and changes in the profile of conidial metabolites. The most striking phenotype of deletion strains is a dramatic decrease in conidial and ascospore viability. We show that this is most likely due to the protein being essential to maintain mitochondrial DNA in spores.

Models of cell differentiation in conidial fungi

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Isolation of 80S ribosomes from spores of Aspergillus fumigatus and their antigenicity in rabbits

Ribosomes were obtained from spores of Aspergillus fumigatus by mechanical disruption and differential centrifugation. The initial preparation (crude ribosomes) contained spore components which appeared to be broken fragments of plasmalemma with or without organelles. Purified ribosomes free of membranous material were prepared by gel filtration chromatography on Sepharose CL-4B. Monomeric 80S ribosomes consisting of 40% protein and 60% RNA, and morphologically characteristic of fungal ribosomes were isolated. Serological reactions in sera from rabbits with crude or purified ribosomes were similar indicating that the purification process did not change or eliminate antigens that stimulated antibody detectable either by indirect hemagglutination (IHA) or in gel precipitin tests.