Characterization and nucleosomal core localization of Achlya histones involved in stress-induced chromatin condensation

Regulation of two different hsp70 transcript populations in steroid hormone-induced fungal development

In the filamentous oomycete fungus Achlya, the differentiation of gamete bearing structures on vegetative hyphae of the male mating type, is induced by the Achlya steroid hormone, antheridiol. Among the several metabolically labeled intracellular proteins whose synthesis or accumulation is altered by hormone treatment are steroid-induced 85-kDa and 68- to 78-kDa proteins. The 85-kDa protein was previously shown to be the Achlya heat shock protein hsp85 [Brunt et al., 1990; Brunt and Silver, 1991], a component of the putative Achlya steroid hormone receptor. It was of interest to determine if the antheridiol-induced "70-kDa" proteins were hsp70-family heat shock proteins and if hormone treatment-induced changes in the level of hsp70 transcripts. Two different Achlya hsp70 genomic sequences were cloned and used to investigate these questions. The two hsp70 sequences recognized two different mycelial transcript populations, one of which was regulated also by decreased glucose. Of note, both of the two hsp70 transcript populations were found to be regulated by antheridiol. The hormone-induced changes in hsp70 transcript levels were temporally correlated with the onset of massive lateral hyphal branching and alterations in the pattern of secreted N-linked glycoproteins which occur in hormone-treated mycelia. To our knowledge, this represents one of the first reports on changes in hsp70 proteins and transcripts during fungal differentiation. Our results may have implications for the role of heat shock proteins in hyphal branching and secretion in filamentous fungi and perhaps other cell types.

Molecular cloning and characterization of two distinct hsp85 sequences from the steroid responsive fungus Achlya ambisexualis

In Achlya ambisexualis, hsp85 is one of the characteristic mycelial heat shock proteins induced in response to a rapid elevation in temperature (Silver et al. 1983). This heat shock protein has the same electrophoretic mobility on two-dimensional gels and is antigenically related to an 85 kDa steroid hormone-regulated protein which constitutes a component of the putative Achlya steroid hormone-receptor complex. We report here the isolation of two distinct, yet highly related, hsp85 gene sequences from Achlya genomic libraries. Northern analyses, using these two Achlya genomic sequences as probes, suggest that there are two hsp85 message population in Achlya and that at least one of these is regulated by the steroid hormone antheridiol.