The filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans reproduces asexually with conidiospores and sexually with ascospores, both of which are the result of complex morphogenetic pathways. The developmental decisions for both ways of reproduction largely depend on the action of stage-specific transcription factors. Here we have characterized the putative Zn(II)(2)Cys(6) transcription factor NosA (number o...

Pulse labeling of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and radioautography have been used to study the effect of growth rate on nuclear replication in Aspergillus nidulans. When conidia were germinated in media supporting a fast growth rate, the radioactive pulse labeled either all of the nuclei in a cell or none of them. At slower growth rates, hyphae contained both labeled and unlabeled nuclei. Alteri...

Antisense expression of a portion of the gene encoding the major carbon catabolite repressor CREA in Aspergillus nidulans resulted in a substantial increase in the levels of glucose-repressible enzymes, both endogenous and heterologous, in the presence of glucose. The derepression effect was approximately one-half of that achieved in a null creA mutant. Unlike results for that mutant, however, ...

The recombinant NStcI A. nidulans esterase was adsorbed on Accurel MP1000, where protein yield and immobilization efficiency were 42.48% and 81.94%, respectively. Storage stability test at 4°C and RT showed 100% of residual activity after 40 days at both temperatures. The biocatalyst retains more than 70% of its initial activity after 3 cycles of repeated use. Biochemical properties of this new...

Four Aspergillus nidulans genes are known to be under the control of the trans-acting regulatory gene amdR. We describe the isolation and initial characterization of one of these amdR-regulated genes, lamA. The lam locus, however, was found to consist of two divergently transcribed genes, the lamA gene, and a new gene, also under amdR control, which we have designated lamB. Using recombinant DN...

Viruses are common in asexual Aspergilli but not in sexual Aspergilli. We found no viruses in 112 isolates of the sexual Aspergillus nidulans. We have investigated factors that could play a role in preventing the spread of mycoviruses through populations of A. nidulans. Experiments were performed with A. nidulans strains infected with viruses originating from A. niger. Horizontal virus transmis...

The genetically tractable filamentous ascomycete fungus Aspergillus nidulans has been successfully exploited to gain major insight into the eukaryotic cell cycle. More recently, its amenability to in vivo multidimensional microscopy has fueled a potentially gilded second age of A. nidulans cell biology studies. This review specifically deals with studies on intracellular membrane traffic in A. ...

External pH constitutes one of the most important environmental factors that control growth, metabolism and differentiation in microorganisms, including fungi. We have analyzed the effect of external pH on sterigmatocystin biosynthesis in Aspergillus nidulans. It was observed in repeated experiments that alkaline pH, in opposition to acid pH, increased sterigmatocystin production and the transc...

Fungi produce an astonishing variety of secondary metabolites, some of which belong to the most toxic compounds in the living world. Several fungal metabolites have anti-insecticidal properties which may yield advantages to the fungus in competition with insects for exploitation of environmental resources. Using the Drosophila melanogaster/Aspergillus nidulans ecological model system to assess ...

Loss-of-function mutations in the regulatory gene areA of Aspergillus nidulans prevent the utilization of a wide variety of nitrogen sources. The phenotypes of nit-2 mutants of Neurospora crassa suggest that this gene may be analogous to the areA gene. Transformation has been used to introduce a plasmid containing the nit-2 gene into A. nidulans. The nit-2 gene of Neurospora complemented mutati...