Ferrochelatase is a conserved downstream target of the blue light-sensing White collar complex in fungi.
Abstract
Light is a universal signal perceived by organisms, including fungi, in which light
regulates common and unique biological processes depending on the species. Previous
research has established that conserved proteins, originally called White collar 1
and 2 from the ascomycete Neurospora crassa, regulate UV/blue light sensing. Homologous
proteins function in distant relatives of N. crassa, including the basidiomycetes
and zygomycetes, which diverged as long as a billion years ago. Here we conducted
microarray experiments on the basidiomycete fungus Cryptococcus neoformans to identify
light-regulated genes. Surprisingly, only a single gene was induced by light above
the commonly used twofold threshold. This gene, HEM15, is predicted to encode a ferrochelatase
that catalyses the final step in haem biosynthesis from highly photoreactive porphyrins.
The C. neoformans gene complements a Saccharomyces cerevisiae hem15Delta strain and
is essential for viability, and the Hem15 protein localizes to mitochondria, three
lines of evidence that the gene encodes ferrochelatase. Regulation of HEM15 by light
suggests a mechanism by which bwc1/bwc2 mutants are photosensitive and exhibit reduced
virulence. We show that ferrochelatase is also light-regulated in a white collar-dependent
fashion in N. crassa and the zygomycete Phycomyces blakesleeanus, indicating that
ferrochelatase is an ancient target of photoregulation in the fungal kingdom.
Type
Journal articleSubject
Cryptococcus neoformansFerrochelatase
Fungal Proteins
Gene Deletion
Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal
Genes, Fungal
Genetic Complementation Test
Light
Mitochondria
Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis
Phycomyces
RNA, Fungal
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/4166Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1099/mic.0.039222-0Publication Info
Idnurm, Alexander; & Heitman, Joseph (2010). Ferrochelatase is a conserved downstream target of the blue light-sensing White collar
complex in fungi. Microbiology, 156(Pt 8). pp. 2393-2407. 10.1099/mic.0.039222-0. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/4166.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Show full item recordScholars@Duke
Joseph Heitman
Chair, Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology
Joseph Heitman was an undergraduate at the University of Chicago (1980-1984), graduating
from the BS-MS program with dual degrees in chemistry and biochemistry with general
and special honors. He then matriculated as an MD-PhD student at Cornell and Rockefeller
Universities and worked with Peter Model and Norton Zinder on how restriction enzymes
recognize specific DNA sequences and how bacteria respond to and repair DNA breaks
and nicks. Dr. Heitman moved as an EMBO long-term fellow to the Bi

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