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Eukaryotic Cell, July 2009, p. 945-956, Vol. 8, No. 7
1535-9778/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/EC.00326-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Class III Chitin Synthase ChsB of Aspergillus nidulans Localizes at the Sites of Polarized Cell Wall Synthesis and Is Required for Conidial Development{triangledown}

Kazuharu Fukuda,1,{dagger} Kazunari Yamada,1,{dagger} Ken Deoka,1 Shuichi Yamashita,2 Akinori Ohta,1 and Hiroyuki Horiuchi1*

Department of Biotechnology,1 Department of Agricultural and Environmental Biology, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-8657, Japan2

Received 26 September 2008/ Accepted 27 April 2009

Class III chitin synthases play important roles in tip growth and conidiation in many filamentous fungi. However, little is known about their functions in those processes. To address these issues, we characterized the deletion mutant of a class III chitin synthase-encoding gene of Aspergillus nidulans, chsB, and investigated ChsB localization in the hyphae and conidiophores. Multilayered cell walls and intrahyphal hyphae were observed in the hyphae of the chsB deletion mutant, and wavy septa were also occasionally observed. ChsB tagged with FLAG or enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) localized mainly at the tips of germ tubes, hyphal tips, and forming septa during hyphal growth. EGFP-ChsB predominantly localized at polarized growth sites and between vesicles and metulae, between metulae and phialides, and between phalides and conidia in asexual development. These results strongly suggest that ChsB functions in the formation of normal cell walls of hyphae, as well as in conidiophore and conidia development in A. nidulans.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Biotechnology, The University of Tokyo, 1-1-1 Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8657, Japan. Phone: 81-3-5841-5170. Fax: 81-3-5841-8015. E-mail: ahhoriu{at}mail.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 1 May 2009.

{dagger} K.F. and K.Y. contributed equally to this study.

Eukaryotic Cell, July 2009, p. 945-956, Vol. 8, No. 7
1535-9778/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/EC.00326-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





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