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Journal of Bacteriology, June 2001, p. 3447-3457, Vol. 183, No. 11
0021-9193/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/JB.183.11.3447-3457.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

The CDC42 Homolog of the Dimorphic Fungus Penicillium marneffei Is Required for Correct Cell Polarization during Growth but Not Development

Kylie J. Boyce, Michael J. Hynes,* and Alex Andrianopoulos

Department of Genetics, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia

Received 22 December 2000/Accepted 13 March 2001

The opportunistic human pathogenic fungus Penicillium marneffei is dimorphic and is thereby capable of growth either as filamentous multinucleate hyphae or as uninucleate yeast cells which divide by fission. The dimorphic switch is temperature dependent and requires regulated changes in morphology and cell shape. Cdc42p is a Rho family GTPase which in Saccharomyces cerevisiae is required for changes in polarized growth during mating and pseudohyphal development. Cdc42p homologs in higher organisms are also associated with changes in cell shape and polarity. We have cloned a highly conserved CDC42 homolog from P. marneffei named cflA. By the generation of dominant-negative and dominant-activated cflA transformants, we have shown that CflA initiates polarized growth and extension of the germ tube and subsequently maintains polarized growth in the vegetative mycelium. CflA is also required for polarization and determination of correct cell shape during yeast-like growth, and active CflA is required for the separation of yeast cells. However, correct cflA function is not required for dimorphic switching and does not appear to play a role during the generation of specialized structures during asexual development. In contrast, heterologous expression of cflA alleles in Aspergillus nidulans prevented conidiation.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Genetics, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia. Phone: 61 3 8344 5140. Fax: 61 3 8344 5139. E-mail: m.hynes{at}genetics.unimelb.edu.au.

Journal of Bacteriology, June 2001, p. 3447-3457, Vol. 183, No. 11
0021-9193/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/JB.183.11.3447-3457.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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