title: Autophagic kinases SmVPS34 and SmVPS15 are required for viability in the filamentous ascomycete Sordaria macrospora.
abstract: Autophagy is a tightly controlled degradation process of all eukaryotes. It includes the sequestration of cytoplasmic contents and organelles within a double-membraned autophagosome. Autophagy involves core autophagy related (atg) genes as well as genes regulating vesicle trafficking. Previously, we analyzed the impact of proteins of the core autophagic machinery SmATG7, SmATG8 and SmATG4 on the sexual and vegetative development of the filamentous ascomycete Sordaria macrospora. While deletion of Smatg8 and Smatg4 abolished fruiting-body formation and impaired vegetative growth, Smatg7 is required for viability. In yeast, the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase vacuolar protein sorting 34 (Vps34) and its myristoylated membrane targeting unit, the protein kinase Vps15 have been shown to be important regulators of autophagy and vacuolar protein sorting. However, their exact role in filamentous ascomycetes remains elusive. To determine the function of Smvps34 and Smvps15 we isolated genes with high sequence similarity to Saccharomyces cerevisiae VPS34 and VPS15. For both genes we were not able to generate a homokaryotic knockout mutant in S. macrospora, suggesting that Smvps34 and Smvps15 are required for viability. Furthermore, we analyzed the repertoire of vps genes encoded by S. macrospora and could identify putative homologs of nearly all of the 61 VPS genes of S. cerevisiae.
authors: Institute of Microbiology and Genetics, Department of Genetics of Eukaryotic Microorganisms, Georg-August-University, Göttingen, Germany.
authors: Oliver
authors: O
authors: Voigt
authors: Institute of Microbiology and Genetics, Department of Genetics of Eukaryotic Microorganisms, Georg-August-University, Göttingen, Germany.
authors: Britta
authors: B
authors: Herzog
authors: Institute of Microbiology and Genetics, Department of Genetics of Eukaryotic Microorganisms, Georg-August-University, Göttingen, Germany.
authors: Antonia
authors: A
authors: Jakobshagen
authors: Institute of Microbiology and Genetics, Department of Genetics of Eukaryotic Microorganisms, Georg-August-University, Göttingen, Germany. Electronic address: spoegge@gwdg.de.
authors: Stefanie
authors: S
authors: Pöggeler
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001343:Autophagy; D058546:Class III Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D005656:Fungal Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D015971:Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic; D015966:Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal; D050296:Microbial Viability; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D020037:Sordariales / Q000737:chemistry / Q000166:cytology* / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics; D058571:Vacuolar Sorting Protein VPS15 / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D005656:Fungal Proteins; D058546:Class III Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases; D058571:Vacuolar Sorting Protein VPS15
keywords: Autophagy; Sordaria macrospora; VPS15; VPS34; Vacuolar protein sorting