title: Regulation of fruiting body photomorphogenesis in Coprinopsis cinerea.
abstract: The agaricomycete (homobasidiomycete) Coprinopsis cinerea has been used as a model to study the molecular mechanism for photomorphogenesis. Molecular genetic analyses of mutants defective in fruiting body (mushroom) photomorphogenesis of C. cinerea identified two genes, dst1 and dst2. dst1 encodes a homolog of WC-1, a fungal blue-light photoreceptor first identified in Neurospora crassa, while dst2 encodes a novel protein with a putative flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD)-binding-4 domain. In addition, reverse genetic analysis revealed that disruption of a C. cinerea gene encoding a WC-2 homolog, the partner of WC-1, causes the same blind phenotype. Searches on the genome data show that both WC-1 and WC-2 homologs are present in some agaricomycetes other than C. cinerea. Furthermore, in an agaricomycete, Lentinula edodes, it has been shown in vitro that the WC-1 and WC-2 homologs interact with each other. These findings suggest that the presumptive mechanism for blue-light sensing in agaricomycetes is fundamentally similar to that in Neurospora crassa, in which the WC-1/WC-2 complex plays a central role. Since the WC-1/WC-2 complex operates as a photoreceptor and a transcription factor, future studies will include identification of the targets of the WC-1/WC-2 complex that regulate photomorphogenesis in agaricomycetes. Another future challenge will be elucidation of the role of the newly identified photomorphogenetic protein, Dst2, in the blue-light-sensing mechanism.
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Okayama University, Okayama 700-8530, Japan. kamada@cc.okayama-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kamada
authors.forename: Hiroaki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sano
authors.forename: Takehito
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nakazawa
authors.forename: Kiyoshi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nakahori
mesh_terms: D000363:Agaricales / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D048690:Fruiting Bodies, Fungal / Q000254:growth & development*; D005656:Fungal Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D015966:Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal; D008027:Light; D009492:Neurospora crassa / Q000235:genetics; D020942:Shiitake Mushrooms / Q000235:genetics; D015398:Signal Transduction
chemical_list: D005656:Fungal Proteins