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Journals
Microorganisms
Special Issues
The Filamentous Fungus Neurospora crassa
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The Filamentous Fungus Neurospora crassa

A special issue of Microorganisms (ISSN 2076-2607).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2020) | Viewed by 10236

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Deborah A. Court

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Microbiology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada
Interests: neurospora; VDAC; mitochondria; porin; outer membrane proteins; protein import

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Neurospora crassa and its related genera have a long, rich history both as model microbes and as model eukaryotes and are now emerging as platforms and enzyme sources for biotechnology. N. crassa emerged in the 1940s as tool for investigating crossing over and segregation, due to its haploid state and organized products of meiosis. These traits, combined with ease of cultivation, led to the pivotal “one-gene one-enzyme” hypothesis of Beadle and Tatum, opening the era of biochemical genetics. Long-term studies utilizing N. crassa have revealed details of circadian clocks, signaling, enzyme structure and function, cellular morphogenesis, and cell wall structure and function, to name but a few. Mitochondrial biochemistry and genetics also flourished with the Neurospora model system, revealing information about respiratory chain function and assembly, alternative oxidases, mitochondrial DNA and plasmids, mitochondria biogenesis, and protein import. Neurospora has proven amenable to genetic manipulation through the elegantly crafted systems utilized in many of these studies and is now enabling investigations of its biotechnologically important functions such as cellulose degradation and secondary metabolite synthesis.

This Special Issue will celebrate the many roles, both past and present, of Neurospora in the basic and applied sciences. You are invited to submit new research articles, short communications or reviews that highlight the recent advances achieved with Neurospora, or compile historical highlights in your area of expertise. A broad range of topics are welcome, as they will reflect the far-reaching impact of N. crassa on our understanding of biology.

Prof. Dr. Deborah A. Court
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Microorganisms is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 16939 KiB  
Article
Wild Isolates of Neurospora crassa Reveal Three Conidiophore Architectural Phenotypes
by Emily K. Krach, Yue Wu, Michael Skaro, Leidong Mao and Jonathan Arnold
Microorganisms 2020, 8(11), 1760; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms8111760 - 9 Nov 2020
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3204
Abstract
The vegetative life cycle in the model filamentous fungus, Neurospora crassa, relies on the development of conidiophores to produce new spores. Environmental, temporal, and genetic components of conidiophore development have been well characterized; however, little is known about their morphological variation. We explored [...] Read more.
The vegetative life cycle in the model filamentous fungus, Neurospora crassa, relies on the development of conidiophores to produce new spores. Environmental, temporal, and genetic components of conidiophore development have been well characterized; however, little is known about their morphological variation. We explored conidiophore architectural variation in a natural population using a wild population collection of 21 strains from Louisiana, United States of America (USA). Our work reveals three novel architectural phenotypes, Wild Type, Bulky, and Wrap, and shows their maintenance throughout the duration of conidiophore development. Furthermore, we present a novel image-classifier using a convolutional neural network specifically developed to assign conidiophore architectural phenotypes in a high-throughput manner. To estimate an inheritance model for this discrete complex trait, crosses between strains of each phenotype were conducted, and conidiophores of subsequent progeny were characterized using the trained classifier. Our model suggests that conidiophore architecture is controlled by at least two genes and has a heritability of 0.23. Additionally, we quantified the number of conidia produced by each conidiophore type and their dispersion distance, suggesting that conidiophore architectural phenotype may impact N. crassa colonization capacity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Filamentous Fungus Neurospora crassa)
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25 pages, 2234 KiB  
Article
Characterization of Single Gene Deletion Mutants Affecting Alternative Oxidase Production in Neurospora crassa: Role of the yvh1 Gene
by Adrien Beau Desaulniers, Nishka Kishore, Kelly Adames and Frank E. Nargang
Microorganisms 2020, 8(8), 1186; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms8081186 - 4 Aug 2020
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2794
Abstract
The Neurospora crassa AOD1 protein is a mitochondrial alternative oxidase that passes electrons directly from ubiquinol to oxygen. The enzyme is encoded by the nuclear aod-1 gene and is produced when the standard electron transport chain is inhibited. We previously identified eleven strains [...] Read more.
The Neurospora crassa AOD1 protein is a mitochondrial alternative oxidase that passes electrons directly from ubiquinol to oxygen. The enzyme is encoded by the nuclear aod-1 gene and is produced when the standard electron transport chain is inhibited. We previously identified eleven strains in the N. crassa single gene deletion library that were severely deficient in their ability to produce AOD1 when grown in the presence of chloramphenicol, an inhibitor of mitochondrial translation that is known to induce the enzyme. Three mutants affected previously characterized genes. In this report we examined the remaining mutants and found that the deficiency of AOD1 was due to secondary mutations in all but two of the strains. One of the authentic mutants contained a deletion of the yvh1 gene and was found to have a deficiency of aod-1 transcripts. The YVH1 protein localized to the nucleus and a post mitochondrial pellet from the cytoplasm. A zinc binding domain in the protein was required for rescue of the AOD1 deficiency. In other organisms YVH1 is required for ribosome assembly and mutants have multiple phenotypes. Lack of YVH1 in N. crassa likely also affects ribosome assembly leading to phenotypes that include altered regulation of AOD1 production. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Filamentous Fungus Neurospora crassa)
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18 pages, 4557 KiB  
Article
The First Step of Neurospora crassa Molybdenum Cofactor Biosynthesis: Regulatory Aspects under N-Derepressing and Nitrate-Inducing Conditions
by Simon Wajmann, Thomas W. Hercher, Sabine Buchmeier, Robert Hänsch, Ralf R. Mendel and Tobias Kruse
Microorganisms 2020, 8(4), 534; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms8040534 - 7 Apr 2020
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3135
Abstract
Molybdenum cofactor (Moco) is the active site prosthetic group found in all Moco dependent enzymes, except for nitrogenase. Mo-enzymes are crucial for viability throughout all kingdoms of life as they catalyze a diverse set of two electron transfer reactions. The highly conserved Moco [...] Read more.
Molybdenum cofactor (Moco) is the active site prosthetic group found in all Moco dependent enzymes, except for nitrogenase. Mo-enzymes are crucial for viability throughout all kingdoms of life as they catalyze a diverse set of two electron transfer reactions. The highly conserved Moco biosynthesis pathway consists of four different steps in which guanosine triphosphate is converted into cyclic pyranopterin monophosphate, molybdopterin (MPT), and subsequently adenylated MPT and Moco. Although the enzymes and mechanisms involved in these steps are well characterized, the regulation of eukaryotic Moco biosynthesis is not. Within this work, we described the regulation of Moco biosynthesis in the filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa, which revealed the first step of the multi-step pathway to be under transcriptional control. We found, that upon the induction of high cellular Moco demand a single transcript variant of the nit-7 gene is increasingly formed pointing towards, that essentially the encoded enzyme NIT7-A is the key player for Moco biosynthesis activity in Neurospora. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Filamentous Fungus Neurospora crassa)
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