title: A novel class of peptide pheromone precursors in ascomycetous fungi.
abstract: Recently, sexual development in the heterothallic ascomycete Trichoderma reesei (anamorph of Hypocrea jecorina) has been achieved and thus initiated attempts to elucidate regulation and determinants of this process. While the α-type pheromone of this fungus fits the consensus known from other fungi, the assumed a-type peptide pheromone precursor shows remarkably unusual characteristics: it comprises three copies of the motif (LI)GC(TS)VM thus constituting a CAAX domain at the C-terminus and two Kex2-protease sites. This structure shares characteristics of both a- and α-type peptide pheromone precursors. Presence of hybrid-type peptide pheromone precursor 1 (hpp1) is essential for male fertility, thus indicating its functionality as a peptide pheromone precursor, while its phosphorylation site is not relevant for this process. However, sexual development in a female fertile background is not perturbed in the absence of hpp1, which rules out a higher order function in this process. Open reading frames encoding proteins with similar characteristics to HPP1 were also found in Fusarium spp., of which Fusarium solani still retains a putative a-factor-like protein, but so far in no other fungal genome available. We therefore propose the novel class of h-type (hybrid) peptide pheromone precursors with H. jecorina HPP1 as the first member of this class.
authors.affiliation: Research Area Gene Technology and Applied Biochemistry, Institute of Chemical Engineering, Vienna University of Technology, Getreidemarkt 9/1665, Vienna 1060, Austria. monika.schmoll@tuwien.ac.at
authors.forename: Monika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schmoll
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Seibel
authors.forename: Doris
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Tisch
authors.forename: Marcel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dorrer
authors.forename: Christian P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Kubicek
mesh_terms: D019295:Computational Biology; D004271:DNA, Fungal / Q000235:genetics; D005656:Fungal Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics; D017353:Gene Deletion; D015723:Gene Library; D005816:Genetic Complementation Test; D010675:Pheromones / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics; D011498:Protein Precursors / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000145:classification; D014242:Trichoderma / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D004271:DNA, Fungal; D005656:Fungal Proteins; D010675:Pheromones; D011498:Protein Precursors