Cloning and functional characterization of the gene encoding the transcription factor Acel in the basidiomycete Phanerochaete chrysosporium

• Main Authors: RUBÉN POLANCO, PAULO CANESSA, ALEXIS RIVAS, LUIS F LARRONDO, SERGIO LOBOS, RAFAEL VICUÑA
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2006-01-01
• Series: Biological Research
• Subjects: Acel; basidiomycete; copper; Phanerochaete chrysosporium
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0716-97602006000500007

In this report we describe the isolation and characterization of a gene encoding the transcription factor Acel (Activation protein of cup 1 Expression) in the white rot fungus Phanerochaete chrysosporium. Pc-acel encodes a predicted protein of 633 amino acids containing the copper-fist DNA binding domain typically found in fungal transcription factors such as Acel, Macl and Haal from Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The Pc-acel gene is localized in Scaffold 5, between coordinates 220841 and 222983. A S. cerevisiae acel null mutant strain unable to grow in high-copper medium was fully complemented by transformation with the cDNA of Pc-acel. Moreover, Northern blot hybridization studies indicated that Pc-acel cDNA restores copper inducibility of the yeast cup 1 gene, which encodes the metal-binding protein metallothionein implicated in copper resistance. To our knowledge, this is first report describing an Acel transcription factor in basidiomycetes