title: Depletion of the MobB and CotA complex in Aspergillus nidulans causes defects in polarity maintenance that can be suppressed by the environment stress.
abstract: Polarized growth is a central feature in eukaryotes. Establishment and maintenance of cell polarity are coordinated by signaling pathways. In this study, we have identified MobB is required for the regulation of cell polarity in Aspergillus nidulans. Depletion of MobB by alcA (p) promoter repression or deletion of MobB abolished conidiation completely, and induced severe growth defects. mobB mutants showed abnormal nuclear segregation with increased number of nuclei in spores, but the formation of septa occurred among dividing cells. The phenotype of mobB in A. nidulans is similar to that of cotA. Furthermore, we verified that MobB interacted with CotA to function as a complex. Interestingly, both mobB and cotA deletion mutants clearly exhibited filament elongation by using environmental osmotic stress in the media. However, calcium channel blocker or chelator inhibited phenotype suppression of mobB or cotA mutants. These results suggest that Ca2+ is potentially involved in the response to the suppression coupled with osmotic stabilizer. This is the first report of the function of MobB in A. nidulans. We propose that the MobB/CotA complex, a component in the conserved RAM-signaling pathway, serves an important role in cell morphogenesis.
authors.affiliation: Nanjing Engineering and Technology Research Center for Microbiology, Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Bioresource Technology, College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, No. 1 Wen Yuan Road, Qi Xia Qu, Nanjing 210046, China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Weiwei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Qin
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Shaochun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Hongqin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Geoffrey
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Turner
authors.forename: Ling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lu
mesh_terms: D001233:Aspergillus nidulans / Q000166:cytology* / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D016764:Cell Polarity; D005656:Fungal Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D017353:Gene Deletion; D008853:Microscopy; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D009024:Morphogenesis; D010802:Phylogeny; D011485:Protein Binding; D025941:Protein Interaction Mapping; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D013172:Spores, Fungal / Q000254:growth & development
chemical_list: D005656:Fungal Proteins